Rules For Radicals

I suppose I should thank Glenn Beck.

20 years ago, as I was just starting out my first year of college, my Uncle Bill (a Methodist pastor) gave me a copy of Saul D. Alinsky's Rules For Radicals. It had been given to him by an uncle on the other side of the family (also a Methodist pastor).

I loved that book. I mean, just loved it.

There wasn't a lot of activism going down on my campus at the time. And what activism there was certainly wasn't "radical" in nature. Houghton was a pretty conservative place-- activism was usually more "counter-activism" if you will.

I didn't get a whole lot of hands on opportunities to apply the rules for radicals right then, but man, I loved that book.

Lately, here and there, I've been seeing Alinsky's name and Rules for Radicals popping up. In the local paper's letters to the editor, in the comments sections on various news sites.

Lots of short little diatribes condemning the book for being, as near as I can tell, vaguely "bad," and condemning Barack Obama for having read it once.

And so I should thank Glenn Beck for getting that name out there again, reminding me how much I loved that book.

The brevity and the vagueness of those little diatribes make it pretty obvious that most of those letter writers have never cracked the book open, have no idea what the book says. They are, as is so often the case (sad, that), parroting one of Glenn's lunatic rants.

But seeing the book attacked here and there got me all nostalgic, and I finally got around to taking out my copy of it again this week.

It's been twenty years since I've read it. Sure, I've pulled it out to find some underlined quote now and then, but it's been twenty years since I sat with it, read the whole thing.

And, man, that's still a great book.

Funny thing, the opening chapters read like they'd been written a week ago, seem to capture the spirit of the times perfectly.

The book is full of great stuff. I can't resist pulling out a few bits and pieces.

"Dogma is the enemy of human freedom. Dogma must be watched for and apprehended at every turn and twist of the revolutionary movement. The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice. Those who enshrine the poor or Have-Nots are as guilty as other dogmatists and just as dangerous."

"We learn, when we respect the dignity of the people, that they cannot be denied the elementary right to participate fully in the solutions to their own problems. Self-respect arises only out of people who play an active role in solving their own crises and who are not helpless, passive, puppet-like recipients of private or public service."

"... America's corporations are a spiritual slum, and their arrogance is the major threat to our future as a free society."

And here's a longer bit, demonstrating his point that people can only work within their own experience, cannot communicate outside their experience:

"In a similar situation in Los Angeles four staff members and I were talking in front of the Biltmore Hotel when I demonstrated the same point, saying: 'Look, I am holding a ten-dollar bill in my hand. I propose to walk around the Biltmore Hotel, a total of four blocks, and try to give it away. This will certainly be outside of everyone's experience. You four walk behind me and watch the faces of the people I'll approach. I am going to go up to them holding out this ten-dollar bill and say, 'Here, take this.' My guess is that everyone will back off, look confused, insulted, or fearful, and want to get away from this nut fast. From their experience when someone approaches them he is either out to ask for instructions or to panhandle-- particularly the way I'm dressed, no coat or tie.

"I walked around, trying to give the ten-dollar bill away. The reactions were all 'within the experiences of the people.' About three of them, seeing the ten-dollar bill, spoke first-- 'I'm sorry, I don't have any change.' Others hurried past saying, 'I'm sorry, I don't have any money on me right now,' as though I had been trying to get money from them instead of trying to give them money. One young woman flared up, almost screaming, 'I'm not that kind of a girl and if you don't get away from here, I'll call a cop!' Another woman in her thirties snarled, 'I don't come that cheap!' There was one man who stopped and said, 'What kind of a con game is this?' and then walked away. Most of the people responded with shock, confusion, and silence, and they quickened their pace and sort of walked around me.

"After approximately fourteen people, I found myself back at the front entrance of the Biltmore Hotel, still holding my ten-dollar bill. My four companions had, then, a clearer understanding of the concept that people react strictly on the basis of their own experience."

Love it.

Thanks, Glenn.