Posted by
Phoenix Lady on Thursday, February 05, 2009 1:31:30 PM
Guess what!
I just got a copy of Saul Alinsky's "Rules for Radicals," published in 1971 and have so far read about 2/3ds of the way through it. His underlying goal in all of his activism and organizing was to enable the Have-Nots (as he called them) to learn how to take back the power and responsibility they had given to the Haves (as he called them) for the chance to survive another day.
As he puts it (page 125) "Without the learning process [on the part of the people being organized], the building of an organization becomes simply the substitution of one power group for another."
Based on what I've read so far, I would have to say that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Michelle Obama (and probably most of the Acorn organizers), all supposedly disciples of Saul Alinsky, totally misunderstand him. Either they didn't actually read the book (just the rules without their actual context), or they substituted their egotism for the ego (i.e. self-confidence) Mr. Alinsky considers a vital factor for any community organizer to have.
To quote Mr. Alinsky regarding Ego as opposed to Egotism, "Ego, as we understand and use it here, cannot be even vaguely confused with, nor is it remotely related to, egotism. No would-be organizer afflicted with egotism can avoid hiding this from the people with whom he is working, no contrived humility can conceal it. Nothing antagonizes people and alienates them from a would-be organizer more than the revealing flashes of arrogance, vanity, impatience, and contempt of a personal egotism."
He goes on to add, "An infection of egotism would make it impossible to respect the dignity of individuals, to understand people, or to strive to develop the other elements that make up the ideal organizer. Egotism is mainly a defensive reaction of feelings of personal inadequacy--ego is a positive conviction and belief in one's ability, with no need for egotistical behavior." (My emphasis.)
The difference between a leader and an organizer is that the leader is driven by the desire for power while the organizer is driven by the desire to create--or to enable the creation of what Mr. Alinsky calls a power organization in which each individual becomes aware of his or her own self-worth, dignity, responsible, and power to act.
I'll continue the thought in my next entry, after I finish the book. In the meantime, for those of us who know that all power vests in the individual, take heart. Mr. Alinsky is actually on our side, not on the side of those who've turned his rules into something he'd recognize as an abomination perpetrated on us by a bunch of egotists he'd never recognize as good community organizers.