now reading: Rules for Radicals
A most pressing prologue:
“People cannot be free unless they are willing to sacrifice some of their interests to guarantee the freedom of others. The price of democracy is the ongoing pursuit of the common good by all of the people”
We begin with a Generation Gap, not uncommon to most things in life, and the observance of realistic vs. rhetorical radicalism. The young & weary must shake hands with the old & seasoned when it comes to reformation, “the passive, affirmative, non-challenging attitude toward change”, then hold hands as they walk together through the three steps to revolution: building the bridge, keeping the pressure (and the perspective) and organizing to become the new political figures.
Understand that we live in “a world not of angels, but angles.” We’re all fighting with the status quo - we either want to preserve or change it - and everyone’s argument is more or less “for the general welfare”. There are no dogmas; pay attention to what men do, not ought to do. The Haves can turn to The Prince, and The Have Nots can turn to Rules for Radicals.
Okay, that’s all of the summary (lecture) I’ll give from the notes I took; to understand the rest of Alinsky’s wise advice, you have to
Read the book yourself and take your own notes (said with the utmost love and excitement)
Hop over to The Cubicle when you’re finished and apply it to PROJECT CCC [Common Cubicle Citizens]
This book is different from most of the others I’ll discuss on the blog, so I thought to include some interesting anecdotes to build your initial interest. When a book requires you to bring something to the table to truly absorb it, I believe you should accept the challenge. Your knowledge, confidence, communication, interpersonal connections, all of this and more stands to grow when you work with books like this.
