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Saul Alinsky

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Famous Saul Alinsky Quotes

“A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, a will to fight for a better world. Without this optimism, there is no reason to carry on. If we think of the struggle as aclimb up a mountain, then we must visualize a mountain with no top. We see a top, but when we finall yreach it, the overcast rises and we find ourselves merely on a bluff. The mountain continues on up. Now we see the "real" top ahead of us, and strive for it, only to find we've reached another bluff, the top still above us. And so it goes on, interminably. Knowing that the mountain has no top, that it is a perpetual quest from plateau to plateau, the question arises, "Why the struggle, the conflict, the heartbreak, the danger, the sacrifice. Why the constant climb?" Our answer is the same as that which a real mountain climber gives when he is asked why he does what he does. "Because it's there." Because life is there ahead of you and either one tests oneself in its challenges or huddles in the valleys of a dreamless day-to-day existence whose only purpose is the preservation of a illusory security and safety. The latter is what the vast majority of people choose to do, fearing the adventure into the known. Paradocically, they give up the dream of what may lie ahead on the heighs of tomorrow for a perpetual nightmare - an endless succession of days fearing the loss of a tenuous security.”

Optimism
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The sit-down strikers began to worry about the illegality of their action and the why and wherefore, and it was then the chief of all C.I.O. organizers, Lewis, gave them their rationale. He thundered, 'The right to a man's job transcends the right of private property! The C.I.O. stands squarely behind these sit-downs!' The sit-down strikers at GM cheered.”

Strikes
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The people of America are red, white, black, yellow, and all the shades in between. Their eyes are blue, black, and brown, and all the shades in between. Their hair is straight, curly, kinky, and most of it in between. They are tall and short, slim and fat, athletic and anaemic, and most of them in between. They are the different peoples of the world becoming more and more the "in between." They are a people creating a new bridge of mankind in between the past of narrow nationalistic chauvinism and the horizon of a new mankind--a people of the world. Their face is the face of the future.”

PeopleWorldDifferentEyeAmericaPastFacesBlackWhiteMankindHairBecomingCreatingRedBlueFatsBridgesBrownTallHorizonShadeYellowAthleticDifferent PeoplesBecoming MoreSlimKinkyChauvinismNationalistic
Book:Reveille for Radicals
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“We must face the bitter fact that we have forsaken our great dream of a life of, for, and by the people; that the burning passions and ideals of the American dream lie congealed by cold cynicism. Great parts of the masses of our people no longer believe that they have a voice or a hand in shaping the destiny of this nation. They have not forsaken democracy because of any desire or positive action of their own; they have been driven down into the depths of a great despair born of frustration, hopelessness, and apathy. A democracy lacking in popular participation dies of paralysis.”

PeopleBelieveHas BeensFactsDreamHandsActionAmericaFacesLyingDesireDiesPassionNationsVoiceBornDestinyDemocracyColdDespairMassIdealsDepthDrivenBitterBurningFrustrationApathyCynicismAmerican DreamLackingParticipationHopelessnessParalysisForsakenBurning Passion
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“Life is there ahead of you and either one tests oneself in its challenges or huddles in the valleys of a dreamless day-to-day existence whose only purpose is the preservation of a illusory security and safety. The latter is what the vast majority of people choose to do, fearing the adventure into the known.”

PeopleLifeLife IsPurposeChallengesExistenceKnownSecurityAdventureTestsSafetyMajorityOneselfLatterValleysDay To DayPreservationIllusoryRules For Radicals
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“Organized religion has too often followed the road of other people's institutions. It has made adjustments, compromises, and surrenders to a materialistic civilization for the benefit of material security in spite of occasional twinges of conscience and moral protests. The result has been that today much of organized religion is materialistically solvent but spiritually bankrupt.”

PeopleHas BeensMadeTodayReligionResultsMoralSecurityMaterialsCivilizationBenefitsConscienceInstitutionsSurrenderCompromiseOrganizedSpiteProtestOccasionalAdjustmentMaterialisticOrganized Religion
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“The American people were, in the beginning, Revolutionaries and Tories. The American people ever since have been Revolutionaries and Tories. They have been Revolutionaries and Tories regardless of the labels of the past and present. Regardless of whether they were Federalists, Democrat-Republicans, Whigs, Know-Nothings, Free Soilers, Unionists or Confederates, Populists, Republicans, Democrats, Socialists, Communists, or Progressives. They have been and are profiteers and patriots. They have been and are conservatives, liberals, and radicals.”

PeopleKnowsHas BeensPastRepublicanDemocratRadicalLabelsRevolutionaryCommunistPatriotPast And PresentPopulistFederalistConfederate
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“In this world laws are written for the lofty aim of "the common good" and then acted out in life on the basis of the common greed. In this world irrationality clings to man like his shadow so that the right things get done for the wrong reasons - afterwards, we dredge up the right reasons for justification. It is a world not of angels but of angles, where men speak of moral principles but act on power principles; a world where we are always moral and our enemies always immoral; a world where "reconciliation" means that when one side gets the power and the other side gets reconciled to it.”

MenWorldMeanReasonDoneLawSpeakSidesCommonMoralEnemyPrinciplesWrittenThis WorldAngelShadowBasesAimGreedRight ThingJustificationAngleImmoralReconciliationLoftyCommon GoodIrrationalityMoral PrinciplesWrong ReasonsRules For Radicals
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“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.”

LongFactsWould BeNationsDemocracyGreaterMajorsFunctionProfitCuresConsumersWelfareOrganizedEnterpriseIgnoredFree Enterprise
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“Men don't like to step abruptly out of the security of familiar experience; they need a bridge to cross from their own experience to a new way. A revolutionary organizer must shake up the prevailing patterns of their lives - agitate, create disenchantment and discontent with the current values, to produce, if not a passion for change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate.”

IfsMenWayNeedsValuesPassionChallengesStepsSecurityProduceCrossesClimatePatternsCurrentsFamiliarBridgesRevolutionaryShakesPassiveNew WaysDiscontentPrevailingAffirmativeOrganizerRules For RadicalsAgitateDisenchantment
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“The democratic ideal springs from the ideas of liberty, equality, majority rule through free elections, protection of the rights of minorities, and freedom to subscribe to multiple loyalties in matters of religion, economics, and politics rather than to a total loyalty to the state. The spirit of democracy is the idea of importance and worth in the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible.”

WorldKindIdeasMatterStatesSpiritIndividualLibertyDemocracyRightsAchieveSpringIdealsEconomicsImportanceElectionMajorityDemocraticProtectionLoyaltyMinoritiesMultipleRules For RadicalsMajority RuleFree ElectionsDemocratic Ideals
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The Prince was written by Machiavelli for the Haves on how to hold power. Rules for Radicals is written for the Have-Nots on how to take it away. In this book we are concerned with how to create mass organizations to seize power and give it to the people; to realize the democratic dream of equality, justice, peace, cooperation, equal and full opportunities for education, full and useful employment, health, and the creation of those circumstances in which man can have the chance to live by values that give meaning to life.”

PeopleMenGivingBookDreamValuesOpportunityRealizingJusticeChanceWrittenCreationCircumstancesEqualMassConcernedOrganizationDemocraticEmploymentRadicalLive ByCooperationMeaning LifeRules For Radicals
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics. The judgment of history leans heavily on the outcome of success or failure; it spells the difference between the traitor and the patriotic hero. There can be no such thing as a successful traitor, for if one succeeds he becomes a founding father.”

IfsMeanEndsFatherDifferencesSuccessfulHeroSucceedJudgmentEthicsOutcomesPatrioticSpellsFoundingTraitorSuccess Or FailureRules For Radicals
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The organized labor movement as it is constituted today is as much a concomitant of a capitalist economy as is capital. Organized labor is predicated upon the basic premise of collective bargaining between employers and employees. This premise can obtain only for an employer-employee type of society. If the labor movement is to maintain its own identity and security, it must of necessity protect that kind of society.”

IfsKindTodayPoliticsEconomySecurityMovementIdentityTypeProtectLaborOrganizedLiberalismEmployeeCollectivesCapitalistEmployersPremisesBargainingLabor MovementOrganized LaborCollective BargainingCapitalist Economy
Book:Reveille for Radicals
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“Radicals, on the other hand, want to advance from the jungle of laissez-faire capitalism to a world worthy of the name of human civilization. They hope for a future where the means of economic production will be owned by all of the people instead of just a comparative handful. They feel that this minority control of production facilities is injurious to the large masses of people not only because of economic monopolies but because the political power inherent in this form of centralized economy does not augur for an ever expanding democratic way of life.”

PeopleWorldWayWantFeelsHumansMeanDoeHandsFormPoliticalPoliticsNamesEconomyEconomicCivilizationMassCapitalismDemocraticProductionsWorthyRadicalLiberalismMinoritiesInherentExpandingJungleMonopolyHandfulFacilityPolitical PowerLaissez FaireHuman CivilizationLaissez Faire Capitalism
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“Many of the lower middle class are members of labor unions, churches, bowling clubs, fraternal, service, and nationality organizations. They are organizations and people that must be worked with as one would work with any other part of our populations - with respect, understanding, and sympathy.”

PeopleUnderstandingChurchClassMiddleMembersLaborOrganizationUnionsPopulationClubsMiddle ClassNationalityBowlingLabor UnionFraternal
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“The organizer must become schizoid, politically, in order to slip into becoming a true believer. Before men can act an issue must be polarized. Men will act when they are convinced their cause is 100 percent on the side of the angels and that the opposition are 100 percent on the side of the devil. He knows there can be no action until issues are polarized to this degree.”

KnowsMenActionOrderCausesSidesIssuesBecomingDegreesPercentDevilAngelConvincedBelieverOppositionSlipsTrue BelieverOrganizerSchizoid
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“It should be borne in mind that the target is always trying to shift responsibility to get out of being the target. There is a constant squirming and moving and strategy . . . on the part of the designated target. The forces for change must keep this in mind and pin that target down securely. If an organization permits responsibility to be diffused and distributed in a number of areas, attack becomes impossible.”

IfsShouldTryingMindMovingForceNumbersResponsibilityImpossibleAreasOrganizationStrategyConstantTargetPermitPinsAlways Trying
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“The classic statement on polarization comes from Christ: 'He that is not with me is against me.' (Luke 11:23) He allowed no middle ground to the moneychangers in the Temple. One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.”

SidesChristMiddleDevilAngelConvictionStatementsClassicTemplesLukeMiddle GroundPolarization
Book:Thirteen Tactics for Realistic Radicals: from Rules for Radicals
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“Let the liberal turn to the course of action, the course of all radicals, and the amused look vanishes from the face of society as it snarls, “That’s radical!” Society has good reason to fear the radical. Every shaking advance of mankind toward equality and justice has come from the radical. He hits, he hurts, he is dangerous. Conservative interests know that while liberals are most adept at breaking their own necks with their tongues, radicals are most adept at breaking the necks of conservatives.”

KnowsLooksReasonActionFacesTurnsCoursesInterestHurtJusticeMankindDangerousConservativeTongueRadicalNecksShakingAmusedAdeptEquality And Justice
Author:Saul Alinsky
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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 (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.”

KnowsMenFirstsForgetKnownMythologyShouldersKingdomsRadicalLegendsEstablishmentLuciferAcknowledgmentRules For RadicalsLest We Forget
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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“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.”

WorldBelieveHumansLightPainSpiritDarkDoubtInjusticeCrueltyCertaintyHuman SpiritInner LightRules For Radicals
Book:Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals
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