Saul Alinsky Quotes

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“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history… the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom — Lucifer.”[ From the dedication page of Rules for Radicals]

“Radicals must be resilient, adaptable to shifting political circumstances, and sensitive enough to the process of action and reaction to avoid being trapped by their own tactics and forced to travel a road not of their choosing.”

“Change means movement. Movement means friction. Only in the frictionless vacuum of a nonexistent abstract world can movement or change occur without that abrasive friction of conflict.”

“Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.”

“Last guys don’t finish nice.”

“A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.”

“The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself.”

“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.”

“The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are  to be displace by new patterns…. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.”

“An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent… He must create a mechanism that can drain off the underlying guilt for having accepted the previous situation for so long a time. Out of this mechanism, a new community organization arises….”

“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.”

“The third rule of ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means….”

“…the organizer must be able to split himself into two parts — one part in the arena of action where he polarizes the issue to 100 to nothing, and helps to lead his forces into conflict, while the other part knows that when the time comes for negotiations that it really is only a 10 percent difference.”

My NewsReal Blog Posts

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NOTE: I am no longer linking each article directly since you can now see a list at NewsReal Blog. Click here to see all posts. Scroll down.

twogs (very short posts)

• The Byrd Rule for Reconciliation:Never, Never, Never to be Used as a Shield for Controversial Legislation
• Do You Want Your Dollars to Help Make Iran a Nuclear State?
• Is Sebelius Misinformed or Misinforming about the Senate Health Care Bill and Abortion?
• Pelosi says she has the Votes to Pass Health Care Reform (at least in the Transcript)
• Obama, Free Markets, and Alinsky
• Joe Biden: Speaking in Dog Years
• As Health Care Summit Looms, Let Us Remember Why No Bill Has Passed
• Obama tips his Hand on Reconciliation at Health Care Summit
• Obama’s Recovery Act has Created these Three Jobs
• Preventing Piracy or the Slippery Slope Towards Internet Censorship?
• Obama Calls for ‘Bipartisan’ Summit on Health Care but Remains Silent but Remains Silent on Senate Push for Reconciliation
• Obama Islamic Envoy Hussain Defended Admitted Palestinian Terrorist
• Joe Biden: The Job Portion of the Stimulus was Designed for 2010
• Rachel Maddow Applied for a Job at FOX News
• Who Cares About Elections? Leslie Marshall has Decided the Californians are for Gay Marriage
• Is Biden Now Working for the Ministry of Truth?
• The Health Care Summit: What the GOP Must Do
• Obama Adviser John Brennan: If you Criticize our handling of Terror Suspect you’re Aiding Al-Qeada

Articles

• Rachel Maddow: DNC Strategist
• Rachel Maddow: Ending the Filibuster will Determine Whether this Country is Capable of Greatness Anymore
• MSNBC: Olbermann, Maddow and Matthews Stage a Primetime Obama Love Fest
• New York Times: Gates Says Taliban Must Take Legitimate Afghan Role
• Obama: A Vote for Scott Brown was a Vote for Me and Against George Bush!
• David Axelrod vs. Karl Rove – My deficit or yours?
• Scott Brown – Running down Elitism and the Obama Agenda in a Pickup Truck!
• The New Truthers: MSNBC Embraces Crackpot Underwear Bomber Conspiracy.
• State of the Union or State of Denial?
• Obama’s First State of the Union: Rhetoric but no Substance
• State of the Union: What Obama didn’t say about Terrorism
• Obama Claims his Health Care Reform Plan is “Pretty Centrist”
• Roger Ailes Answers Arianna Huffington’s Accusation of Glenn Beck: “I Think He Speaks English”
• Gibbs tells CNN’s John King the House is Just One Vote Shy From Passing Senate HCR
• Beck Slaughters Huffington’s False Claim: Clearing up the Argument between Glenn Beck and Arianna Huffington