62 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
62 lines
2.7 KiB
Markdown
**Saul David Alinsky** (1909 - 1972) was a [community
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organizer](Community_Organizing "wikilink"), writer and philosopher.
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## Life
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Saul was born in 1909 in Chicago, Illinois, to Russian Jewish immigrant
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parents, the only surviving son of Benjamin Alinsky's marriage to his
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second wife, Sarah Tannenbaum Alinsky. They never became involved in the
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socialist movement and were strict Orthodox Jews, with a life centered
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around work and a synagogue. Although he abandoned his Jewish faith for
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agnosticism at age 12, he faced constant anti-semitism growing up. He
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moved to Los Angeles in the 1920s and finished high school in 1926.
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He graduated with a bachelor in philosophy from the university of
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Chicago in 1930, and major in archeology. He planned to be a
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professional archeologist, but the [Great
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Depression](Great_Depression "wikilink") put plans away for this. He
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began to work as a criminologist for the State of Illinois, and began
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organizing with the [Congress of Industrial
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Organizations](Congress_of_Industrial_Organizations "wikilink"). But
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slowly became less active in the labor movement and more with general
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community organizing. He successfully organized slum communities, and
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also began organizing in Kansas City, Detroit and Southern California.
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He never joined a [political party](Political_Party "wikilink"), but
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identified as a 'small c [communist](Communism "wikilink")' and became a
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legendary community organizer. But died of a heart attack in California.
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Before his death, he expressed a desire to go to hell, to organize it,
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culminating in an uprising against satan.\[1\]
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## Ideas
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Saul developed 13 'rules' for radicals to follow in order to
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successfully challenge the wealthy and power. They are:
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1. "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you
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have."
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2. "Never go outside the expertise of your people."
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3. "Whenever possible go outside the expertise of the enemy."
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4. "Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules."
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5. "Ridicule is man's most potent weapon."
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6. "A good tactic is one your people enjoy."
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7. "A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag."
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8. "Keep the pressure on."
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9. "The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself."
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10. "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that
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will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition."
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11. "If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through
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into its counterside."
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12. "The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative."
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13. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it."
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## Works
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- [Rules for Radicals](Rules_for_Radicals "wikilink")
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## References
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<references />
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1. [Wikipedia](Wikipedia "wikilink") -
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky> |