Saul Alinsky
Saul Alinsky
Saul David Alinskywas an American community organizer and writer. He is generally considered to be the founder of modern community organizing. He is often noted for his 1971 book Rules for Radicals...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth30 January 1909
CountryUnited States of America
tragedy faces looks
Human beings do not like to look squarely into the face of tragedy. Gloom is unpopular.
american-activist power
Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
airport highly jet kennedy quotes runway society
Quotes from Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara - are as germane to our highly technological, computerized society as a stagecoach on a jet runway at Kennedy airport
jobs issues firsts
In the beginning the organizer's first job is to create the issues or problems.
facts fountainhead rules-for-radicals
It is a sad fact of life that power and fear are the fountainheads of faith.
acceptance accepting sudden-death
Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you are free to live.
long democracy would-be
Organized business has assumed that greater profits would be pretty much of a cure-all, and it has to a major extent ignored the fact that the welfare of business rests upon the welfare of the consumers of a nation; that business or free enterprise will function in a democracy only so long as the democracy functions.
possession ideology prerequisites
The prerequisite for an ideology is possession of a basic truth.
moral problem
Those who are most moral are farthest from the problem.
pain believe dark
The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice.
successful alternatives rules-for-radicals
The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
confusion people retreat
The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
angel men enemy
It is a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our enemies always immoral;
enemy rules-for-radicals expertise
Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.