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
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.
american-activist power
Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
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.
tragedy faces looks
Human beings do not like to look squarely into the face of tragedy. Gloom is unpopular.
moral problem
Those who are most moral are farthest from the problem.
fear mean love-is
Love and faith are not common companions. More commonly power and fear consort with faith....Power is not to be crossed; one must respect and obey. Power means strength, whereas love is a human frailty the people mistrust. It is a sad fact of life that power and fear are the fountainheads of faith.
asking problem diarrhea
Asking a sociologist to solve a problem is like prescribing an enema for diarrhea.
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.
real mean men
The end is what you want, the means is how you get it. Whenever we think about social change, the question of means and ends arises. The man of action views the issue of means and ends in pragmatic and strategic terms. He has no other problem; he thinks only of his actual resources and the possibilities of various choices of action. He asks of ends only whether they are achievable and worth the cost; of means, only whether they will work. ... The real arena is corrupt and bloody.
successful alternatives rules-for-radicals
The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.