Rules for Radicals

Rules for Radicals

By: Saul Alinsky  

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Average Customer Rating: 4.0 out of 5

Publisher: Vintage

Release Date: 1989-10-23

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
Paid for what i got - Book was written in. but hey it was only 6$ next time please say when books are written in thxs.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Not what I expected - This book wasn't bad but it wasn't what I thought it would be.

I agree with most of the things he's saying. If you want to be a radical in this world and make a difference, you sometimes have to team up with the "enemy" and he is probably right. You have to "fit in" to make a difference. I just hate the idea of dressing up and ditching my piercings, I suppose.

All in all it's worth the read.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
know your enemy - As a conservative, one must know your enemy. Today it is the socialist left. Saul's book is their hand book. Use it to counter their "National Socialist" agenda.

Customer Review: 5 out of 5
"THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO OF THE 21ST CENTURY!" - "THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO OF THE 21ST CENTURY!"

This is truly the, "COMMUNIST MANIFESTO OF THE 21ST CENTURY!" As a Libertarian I see this for what it is. It is a guide book for every Stalinist Elitist Liberal which tells them how to deceive the people to gain power. And silence all opposition. And once they have gained the power do what they want to force the failure that is Communism on the public. For the public good.

In this book Alinsky reveals just what Stalinist like Hillary Clinton and rest of the Democrats have been doing for years to con the American people. Lying at ever turn as to who and what they really are. He clearly admits that their ideas will be rejected for the oppressive and regressive failure history has proven them to be. "So they must lie!" And they have been lying for the past 4o + years clearing using this book for the last 36 years as their Bible. Hillary, Bill, the entire Democrat party, the media and the Stalinist that infest our schools. And colleges. They're all doing it.

But Saul Alinsky doesn't stop there. He clearly spells out the principals that they (the Stalinist Liberal) must govern / lord over us for the public good. Sound familiar? Yup.. "Bound to your natural superiors." Karl Marx.

Now he tries to give himself cover by saying he has contempt for any dogma left or right. But if you read it for what it is and read Hillary Clinton's thesis. He fails miserable. It is what is it is. A guide book (the Bible) for the modern day Liberal like Hillary Clinton and today's Democrats on how to con you. And seize power! People who are not just neo Marxist, but are complete Stalinist Elites.

Don't be fooled by the defenders of this book. They're all using the tactics outlined in the book to silence opposition and criticism of Alinsky and the Democrats. It tell you exactly who and what they are and the total disaster it will be for America and the world if they are allowed to seize the power they so lust for.

To Borrow a phrase. "Liberal, Progressive, Humanist... A Stalinist by any other name." It's who they are and this book taken for what it is rips away their masks.

Customer Review: 4 out of 5
Farting as social protest... - They don't make 'em like Saul Alinsky anymore. (The only left-wing public intellectuals alive today that could even be mentioned in the same breath are Zinn and Chomsky...and they ain't gonna be around much longer.) Saul was one of those hyper-literate, socially conscious Hebrews, coming straight out of the Jewish liberal tradition that made a unique impact on the political/class struggle of the 20th century. (Now the Jews have joined the establishment, and the historical accident of an intellectually capable oppressed minority will, in a generation or two, no longer exist.)

His treatise on pragmatic social change is a delight to read (even for a reactionary right-winger like myself), though it is somewhat dated, and the predictions oftentimes wrong. Despite his errors, and predictive ineptitude, this book is the work of a keen intellect, a man committed to what he thought was right, and an invaluable insight into the mind of a thinking leftist.

Alinsky has read his Marx, and the Hegelian/Marxist dialectic is a continuing theme in the book, as is the middle class's supposed alienation, but he is no commie. He criticizes Soviet Russia, and extols democracy as the only means by which revolution is to be achieved. He believes in probability, not causality, and is fiercely opposed to individualism. ("We are our brother's keeper," "Individuality is primitive stupidity.") I find the latter quote ironic, since, recalling Anthropology 101, the more primitive tribes display the most communitarian spirit...but Alinsky never says he is infallible.

His rules on means and ends are brilliant, as is his dissection of how protest is to be effective. He is particularly scornful of protest tactics (still used today by the anti-war movement...ineffectually) that achieve no concrete results, and only alienate the middle-class power base.

He considers that right actions are always done for wrong reasons, and adduces Abraham Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus, disobeying a directive from the Supreme Court, and illegal use of military commissions to try civilians (sound familiar?), in order to win the Civil War.

He analyzes Gandhi as a pragmatist, not as some living moral saint, and provides a revisionist account of his tactics of non-violence. (He neglects to mention that Gandhi was a klismaphiliac.)

Alinsky stresses change, and dynamism, the stagnation of consistency, and how your friends today can be your enemies tomorrow. (The Left has forgotten this lesson, to their rhetorical disadvantage.)

The one place where Alinsky seriously goes off the rails is the chapter on using stock proxies to combat corporate practices. I've been to shareholders' meetings, and seen the "progressive" proposals by church groups, PETA, the Sierra Club, etc., voted on...and routinely defeated by margins of 99.7%. Alinsky lets his idealism trump his pragmatic common sense when he claims that people--middle-class people--will sacrifice dividends for "social justice."

Notwithstanding that, however, this book is still very worthwhile for all to study...partly as an historical artifact, partly for the Man to understand how to effectively stymie the lumpen-proletariat, and partly for the Left to understand why not to replicate the mistakes that Alinsky identified and warned against. (Although the Left would be advised to devise completely new tactics altogether...marching, picketing, and chanting are, as Alinsky would say, "trite.")

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