Rules for Radicals

Lesson Three – Managing Anxiety

RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”

It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Security is the most basic human urge and is therefore of primary concern in organizing and retaining people. This is the reason why radicals never address the issues and just spew talking points; they must avoid things of which they have no knowledge in order to feel secure. In their contempt for the opposition they assume that people cannot tell the difference between the truth and a lie; that by repeating a lie over and over again it will eventually be accepted as the truth. Trying to interview or debate them is nearly always an exercise in futility as they repeat the same old canards ad nauseum while interjecting personal attacks to make their opponent quit the debate.

The point of any debate with a radical should be for the bystanders and listeners, not to try to convince the radical. Keep telling the truth and let him who has ears hear.

RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”

“Many organizations which come under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address,” says Craig Miyamoto in his article Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.

Alinsky advised his organizer to always search for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty of the opposition – in our case middle class small businesses and some corporations.

This is where the law is meant to protect us, or that failing the community can rally in support. But the radicals will make the most outrageous threats, even when there is little to no possibility of their making good on them, because they know RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Be prepared and don’t buy into the game.

RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Radicals keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

Sounds good on paper doesn’t it? But the reality is that even radicals get bored, which bring us to

RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” To keep the radical hordes excited and involved, organizers have to constantly come up with new tactics. The uncultivated mind is easily bored and distracted; it lacks perseverance, the quality of character which is the ability to endure in time to pursue a fixed goal. 

Alinsky is assuming

1)     That the organizer is an omnipotent genius

2)     That he is dealing with reactive people whom he can manipulate at will and keep on defense indefinitely

3)     His enemy is stupid, cannot figure him out or innovate on his own

4)     His enemy is cowardly

5)     His followers are loyal

But who are these people of either side are? The middle classes are either upright and virtuous or not, but it is their property that the organizer seeks to plunder in the name of social justice. The middle classes fight to maintain their lawfully earned property and God-given liberty. The radicals are basically the organized crime syndicate whose aim is to obtain these assets; they fight for profit and thus they are mercenaries.

Machiavelli had much to say about these fighters for hire:

Mercenaries and auxiliaries are useless and dangerous; and if one holds his state based on these arms, he will stand neither firm nor safe; for they are disunited, ambitious and without discipline, unfaithful, valiant before friends, cowardly before enemies; they have neither the fear of God nor fidelity to men, and destruction is deferred only so long as the attack is; for in peace one is robbed by them, and in war by the enemy. The fact is, they have no other attraction or reason for keeping the field than a trifle of stipend, which is not sufficient to make them willing to die for you. They are ready enough to be your soldiers whilst you do not make war, but if war comes they take themselves off or run from the foe; which I should have little trouble to prove, for the ruin of Italy has been caused by nothing else than by resting all her hopes for many years on mercenaries, and although they formerly made some display and appeared valiant amongst themselves, yet when the foreigners came they showed what they were.

Creating anxiety for the enemy while maintaining security for one’s own group is the essence of the organizer’s manipulative art. Alinsky advises the organizer to keep his people inside their comfort zone while drawing and pushing the enemy out of his. The fight is not at all meant to be a fair one.

But two can play that game. Forewarned is forearmed.

John Perazzo’s excellent essay on Saul Alinsky is here. And here are part one and two of this series.

Posted by Hesperian Sibyl

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