In Defense of Saul Alinsky: Part One

Barack Obama has given Saul Alinsky a bad name. Men like Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck, who badmouth Alinsky because Obama studied Alinsky, are more like Alinsky than Alinsky himself! I knew Mr. Alinsky in the 1960s. I had him to my house for dinner one wonderful evening. I actually cherish the memory of that evening, which was filled with laughter and great conversation about how America can achieve the ideals of its founders. This was a man who loved America and what it stands for. I never thought of him as a man of the left, which I guess he was. In those days, I never thought about right and left, and he certainly did not talk in those terms.

What Saul Alinsky was all about was citizen participation: making the ideals of America come alive for all citizens. I had previously read only one of Alinsky's books, Reveille for Radicals. The book that gets quoted nowadays is Rules for Radicals, written by him in 1971. I checked it out recently on interlibrary loan. I will quote liberally from it in this and later posts, so you can read for yourself what this man stood for.

First, some background. Alinsky writes about those of us who came into adulthood in the 60s:

"Today's generation is desperately trying to make sense out of their lives and their world. Most of them are products of the middle class. They watched (their parents idea of success) lead to tranquilizers, alcohol, long-term-endurance marriages, or divorces, high blood pressure, ulcers, frustration, and the disillusionment of the "good life." They have seen the almost unbelievable idiocy of our political leadership - in the past political leaders were regarded with respect and almost reverence; today they are viewed with contempt. We are living in a world of mass media which daily exposes society's innate hypocrisy, its contradictions and the apparent failure of almost every facet of our social and political life. The young have seen their participatory democracy turn into its antithesis - nihilistic bombing and murder. The political panaceas of the past, such as the revolutions in Russia and China, have become the same old stuff under a different name. The search for freedom does not seem to have any road or destination. The young are inundated with a barrage of information and facts so overwhelming that the world has come to seem an utter bedlam, which has them spinning in a frenzy, looking for what man has always looked for from the beginning of time, a way of life that has some meaning or sense.

Today's generation says, "I don't want to spend my life the way my family and friends have. I want to do something, to create, to be me, "to do my own thing, to live." The older generation, on the other hand, is no less confused. If they are less vocal or conscious, it may be because they can escape to a past when the world was simpler. They can still cling to the old values in the simple hope that everything will work out somehow, some way."

Well, that was a pretty accurate description of how things were back in the late sixties. Now, how about the ideas that Alinsky sought to promulgate? First, he expresses dismay that the people who were trying to change things were such poor communicators.

"Even the most elementary grasp of the fundamental idea that one communicates within the experience of his audience - and gives full respect to the other's values - would have ruled out attacks on the American flag. The responsible organizer would have known that it is the establishment that has betrayed the flag, while the flag itself remains the glorious symbol of America's hopes and aspirations, and he would have conveyed this message to his audience. On another level of communication, humor is essential, for through humor, much is accepted that would have been rejected if presented seriously. This is a sad and lonely generation. It laughs too little, and this, too, is tragic."

Who excels today in the arts of communication and humor? Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck!

"Let us not forget that in our system with all its repressions we can still speak out and denounce the administration, attack its policies, work to build an opposition political base. True, there is government harassment, but there still is that relative freedom to fight: I can attack my government, try to organize to change it. That's more than I can do in Moscow, Peking, or Havana. Just a few of the violent episodes here in America that we have experienced would have resulted in a sweeping purge and mass executions in Russia, China, or Cuba. Let's keep some perspective... A revolutionary organizer must agitate, create disenchantment, and discontent to produce if not a passion for change, at least a passive, affirmative, non-challenging climate (regarding change).

A final word on our system. 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 of the individual, and faith in the kind of world where the individual can achieve as much of his potential as possible...The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself. Tocqueville gravely warned that unless individual citizens were regularly involved in the action of governing themselves, self-government would pass from the scene. Citizen participation is the animating spirit and force in a society predicated on voluntarism.

Here we are concerned with the vast mass of our people who, thwarted through lack of interest or opportunity , or both, do not participate in the endless responsibilities of citizenship and are resigned to lives determined by others. To lose your identity as a citizen of democracy is but a step from losing your identity as a person... That person sinks further into apathy, anonymity, and depersonalization. The result is that he comes to depend on public authority and a state of civic-sclerosis sets in... There can be no darker or more devastating tragedy than the death of man's faith in himself and in his power to direct his future.... Together we may find what we're looking for - laughter, beauty, love, and the chance to create."

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