Alinsky the Gangster
I’ve read a lot of Saul Alinksy over the years. I still do, actually. He was a smart and effective agitator, no question about it, and for that reason his place in American history is well earned. If you are interested in how power flows through organizations (companies, governments, unions, communities, religions, gangs, armies) and you want to undermine that power and acquire it for yourself then you need to read Alinsky. Or maybe you find yourself in a war. Alinksy can help. Also, if you want to defend yourself from leaders like Alinksy then you need to read Alinksy. And even if you just need to organize something big, Alinsky offers many interesting tools and techniques for getting the job done (in an Al Capone sort of way).
So, in that respect Alinsky is useful. But had I lived during Alinsky’s 1930s Chicago I doubt I would have followed him. I probably would have seen him as just another self-appointed leader trying to exploit people, and goodness knows we have enough of those guys to deal with already. He was just too much of a gangster for my taste, and I think he was too much into simply replacing power with more power (his power).
If you have never heard Alinksy actually talk, check out this 15 minute interview — Studs Terkel Interviews Saul Alinsky. Gangster.
[...] were disingenuous. Don’t do what Alinksy did. If you do and you are successful you may end up looking a lot like what you fight. I can’t help thinking about that watching Ferguson and Chomsky. Instead, organize to build [...]
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April 19, 2010 at 1:02 pm
[...] This is Alinksy. It’s war. I’ve said before that I felt Alinsky was little more than a gangster exploiting others to grab power for himself and I haven’t changed my opinion recently. I [...]
Alinsky Sessions « Jim Grisanzio
June 6, 2011 at 10:57 pm
[...] I see Barack Obama out there building community again, inspiring the HOPE and CHANGE for which he was so well-known during his organizing days as a young man in Chicago. This time, with the power of the modern security state at his disposal, he sent in SWAT teams and the FBI in a military-style raid to take out an anti-war activist who organized at the Republican National Convention in 2008. Organizers beware. That’s the message. Alinsky would be proud. So would the Nobel committee, I would imagine. Al Capone, too. [...]
Barack Obama’s Community Building Skills « Jim Grisanzio
July 14, 2011 at 9:45 pm