R4R - Rules for Radicals - Saul Alinsky

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It is interesting to read "R4R" along side the news of the day & in particular the "99%" & Occupy movements or a I like to call them non-movements. I consider the quotes from R4R to be "fair use" of the text. It would have been interesting in the days of Moses & Jesus & even Mohamed if the texts of the Torah, Bible & the Koran were available - side-by-side for comparison; likewise all those revolutionary texts like Mine Kampf, Mao's Little Red Book, & The Communist Manifesto.

R4R p.126-127 (Chapter on Tactics): ... Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

... Saul asterisks the first rule:

R4R - p127 (bottom): ...
Power has always derived from two main sources, money and people. Lacking money, the Have-Nots must build power from their own flesh and blood. A mass movement expresses itself with mass tactics. Against the finesse and sophistication of the status quo, the Have-Nots have always had to club their way. In early Renaissance Italy the playing cards showed swords for the nobility (the word spade is a corruption of the Italian word for sword). chalices (which became hearts) for the clergy, diamonds for the merchants , and clubs as the symbol of the peasants.

...

My * to his is that the Tarot has similar symbols Clubs (wands), Swords, Disks (coins) & Cups - you make your own correspondences.

Comments

Mark de LA says

The VP going around saying that if Congress doesn't pass obama's jobs bill there will be more rapes & murders is an example of:

(A) - amplifying the message for O's cause?
(B) - distortion & hyperbole ?
(C) - just old Joe running off at the mouth again before sticking his foot in it?
(D) - a desperation strategy on the part of the administration?

Mark de LA says

seth 2011-10-20 16:06:52 15571

yep, when promoting a cause, you use language that amplifies your message.

That's one way to look at it others might look at that as spin, advertizing, distortions & lies. Saul didn't contextualize it that way.

Mark de LA says

PS - None of this suggests that I support violence - as cockroaches scatter when the light gets turned on I hope to shine more light on current events including how the M$M covers them.

Mark de LA says

seth 2011-10-20 13:47:06 15571

i have no idea what the point here is. i mean it must be something more than just that the poor must use their own inherent power of assembly because they have no money ... something that has been going on in most revolutions since history started being written down. but what you point is beyond that painfully obvious and true statement by alinsy must be somewhere off this page.

... or is it here?

source: my fb item
Alinsky's R4R - Always remember the first rule of power tactics: Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have. Applied in this case to the size or your movement as well as the % of the people that agree with you. LOL.

... are you saying that this is a small movement and that a lot of people do not agree with it?

These are Saul's words describing his thoughts on revolution in the '70s. It is so easy to apply them today. I say that the two slogans "99%" and "Occupy XXX" are used to make people think that there is a so-called revolution & is bigger than whatever it is. The M$M likes this kind of thing & helps to spin things large & into crisis mode.

The big "O" & others then like to jump in & imply their policies are part of what the so-called revolution demands & wants to happen. Unrest is the raw protoplasm from which enterprising politicians can draw power. I don't think Saul spec'd out any solutions.

Mark de LA says

The symbol for oppresssion from the Tarot: (wands) -

Mark de LA says

seth 2011-10-20 17:12:00 15571

MR 2011-10-20 16:16:29 15571

The VP going around saying that if Congress doesn't pass obama's jobs bill there will be more rapes & murders is an example of:

(A) - amplifying the message for O's cause?
(B) - distortion & hyperbole ?
(C) - just old Joe running off at the mouth again before sticking his foot in it?
(D) - a desperation strategy on the part of the administration?

or (E) - Biden said "In 2010, when Flint had only 144 police officers, the murder rate climbed to 65 and rapes--just to pick two categories--climbed to 229. In 2011, you now only have 125 shields. God only knows what the numbers will be this year for Flint if we don't rectify it." ... in other words Flint needs the police which the jobs bill will provide to deter crime.

Who is doing the spinning here ... might it be the Weekly Standard ...

source: excerpted from Wikipedia
The Weekly Standard is an American neoconservative opinion magazine. Its founding publisher is News Corporation. The Standard has been described as a "redoubt of neoconservatism" and as "the neo-con bible". Many of the magazine's articles are written by members of conservative think tanks located in Washington, D.C.

... if you want to uncover spin, i suggest avoiding another spinner.

I could have chosen any number I chose the first one I liked. Suck it up, Dude: http://news.google.com/news/search?pz=1&cf=all&ned=us&hl=en&q=biden+rape+and+murder

Seth says

well like i said originally, i have no idea what you are saying here. are you agreeing with alinsky? the things you quote from him are almost platitudes. sure, nobody likes spin and exaggeration ... even though it is the current world in which we live. when i watch tv ads i almost always flash: "they are advertising that point just because it is the weakest part of their brand, if it was all that great, they wouldn't need to advertise it". but then, if that is your point, why get gined up against biden (prolly from listening to some spin program) and then go search for it at google and spit out the worst possible distortion yourself. sorry, mark, none of that computes for me. just leaves me wondering what your true message is.

Mark de LA says

In my Party Party note on fb & in the precursor private item in projects group I said this about the size of government:

MR facebook note: ... Right-Size government; not too small - not to BIG, just RIGHT!

... I stick to that. OTOH, the OWS & 99'ers movements seems to want more rather than less.

In every crowd there are "professional" rabble-rousers whose being exists to rouse rabbles! They come from all walks of life like academia, those on the fringe of politics & media, & those who have a vested interest or belief in chaos & anarchism.

Mark de LA says

Good examples of rabble rousers are Michael Moore & Susan Sarandon. When they are not getting enough attention & their egos are getting cold they show up before a TV camera & say nasty things against the pope & the capitalist system. The more outrageous the more they puff their egos & feel warm again.

Mark de LA says

Natually, most of the rabble-rouses showed up in New York @ OWS. One thing for sure is that potesters & rioters are really NOT into democracy. They mostly want their own way - any means justifying their own ends (one of Saul's R4R). That demonstrations are necessay, even traditional, is a failue of Democracy. It shows that Congress & the President apparently don't know that there are people out there that lost their jobs, cant find work, & have money problems?

R4R - Rules for Radicals - Saul Alinsky

About: amazon.com: rules for radicals (9780679721130): saul alinsky: books

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