As an organizer I start from where the world is, as it is, not as I would like it to be. Saul Alinsky More Quotes by Saul Alinsky More Quotes From Saul Alinsky The despair is there; now it's up to us to go in and rub raw the sores of discontent, galvanize them for radical social change. Saul Alinsky despairchangesocial Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it. Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.) Saul Alinsky cuttinghurtpeople They have the guns and therefore we are for peace and for reformation through the ballot. When we have the guns then it will be through the bullet. Saul Alinsky governmentgunpeace Control healthcare and you control the people Saul Alinsky healthcarerules-for-radicalspeople True revolutionaries do not flaunt their radicalism. They cut their hair, put on suits and infiltrate the system from within. Saul Alinsky radicalismcuttinghair Never let a crisis go to waste Saul Alinsky crisiswaste A Marxist begins with his prime truth that all evils are caused by the exploitation of the proletariat by the capitalists. From this he logically proceeds to the revolution to end capitalism, then into the third stage of reorganization into a new social order of the dictatorship of the proletariat, and finally the last stage -- the political paradise of communism. Saul Alinsky politicalevilorder The very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom -- Lucifer. Saul Alinsky devilkingdomsmen In the beginning the organizer's first job is to create the issues or problems. Saul Alinsky issuesjobsfirsts Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is. ... Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and the way of life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt. They are right; but we must begin from where we are if we are to build power for change, and the power and the people are in the middle class majority. Saul Alinsky organizationclasswar The organizer must become schizoid, politically, in order to slip into becoming a true believer. Before men can act an issue must be polarized. Men will act when they are convinced their cause is 100 percent on the side of the angels and that the opposition are 100 percent on the side of the devil. He knows there can be no action until issues are polarized to this degree. Saul Alinsky issuesangelmen Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage. Saul Alinsky weaponsimpossiblemen In a fight almost anything goes. It almost reaches the point where you stop to apologize if a chance blow lands above the belt. Saul Alinsky fightinglandblow If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive. Saul Alinsky rules-for-radicalsenoughnegative If people don't think they have the power to solve their problems, they won't even think about how to solve them. Saul Alinsky problempeoplethinking The fourth rule is: "Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules." You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity. Saul Alinsky christianbookenemy The only nonpartisan people are those who are dead. Saul Alinsky people Humor is essential to a successful tactician, for the most potent weapons known to mankind are satire and ridicule. Saul Alinsky essentialsweaponssuccessful Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer. Saul Alinsky legendsmenfirsts From the moment an organizer enters a community, he lives, dreams, eats, breathes, sleeps only one thing, and that is to build the mass power base of what he calls the army. Saul Alinsky armydreamsleep
