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Saul Alinsky

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Famous Saul Alinsky Quotes

“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
Author:Saul Alinsky
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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
Author:Saul Alinsky
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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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“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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“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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“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.”

PeopleHumansMeanFactsFearLove IsCommonCompanionFacts Of LifeMistrustFrailtyFountainheadRules For RadicalsFaith And LoveHuman FrailtiesPower And Fear
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“A revolution without a prior reformation would collapse or become a totalitarian tyranny. A reformation means that masses of our people have reached the point of disillusionment with past ways and values. They don't know what will work but they do know that the prevailing system is self-defeating, frustrating, and hopeless. They won't act for change but won't strongly oppose those who do. The time is then ripe for revolution”

PeopleKnowsWayMeanSelfPastValuesRevolutionMassTyrannyHopelessCollapseFrustratingRipeReformationPrevailingDisillusionmentRules For Radicals
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“The organizers first job is to create the issues or problems, and organizations must be based on many issues. The organizer must first rub raw the resentments of the people of the community; fan the latent hostilities of many of the people to the point of overt expression. He must search out controversy and issues, rather than avoid them, for unless there is controversy people are not concerned enough to act. . . . An organizer must stir up dissatisfaction and discontent.”

PeopleFirstsEnoughProblemJobsCommunityIssuesFansExpressionConcernedOrganizationResentmentControversyHostilityDiscontentDissatisfactionLatentOrganizerRules For Radicals
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“Theres another reason for working inside the system. Dostoevsky said that taking a new step is what people fear most. Any revolutionary change must be preceded by a passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change among the mass of our people. They must feel so frustrated, so defeated, so lost, so futureless in the prevailing system that they are willing to let go of the past and change the future. This acceptance is the reformation essential to any revolution.”

PeopleFeelsSaidReasonPastLostChallengesAttitudeStepsAcceptanceWillingRevolutionLetting GoEssentialsMassRevolutionaryPassiveFrustratedDefeatedReformationPrevailingAffirmativeRules For RadicalsRevolutionary Change
Author:Saul Alinsky
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“Organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class. That is where the power is. ... Our rebels have contemptuously rejected the values and the way of life of the middle class. They have stigmatized it as materialistic, decadent, bourgeois, degenerate, imperialistic, war-mongering, brutalized and corrupt. They are right; but we must begin from where we are if we are to build power for change, and the power and the people are in the middle class majority.”

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Author:Saul Alinsky
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