One sleepless night last week I read “Rules for Radicals” by
Saul Alinsky – that bugbear of a certain segment of the right. I write this now,
after some sleep, while the book is still fresh in my mind.
It says something about the Alinsky’s life and work that decades
after his death his name is still spoken with such vitriol in certain reactionary
circles. And reading this book I can see why! Alinsky’s tactics were disquieting.
That was the entire point! Alinksy sought to change the status quo by discomforting
those comfortable with it, disturbing people who should be disturbed by the
present situation but aren’t. If you’re going to use protest and activism to
try and force changes (the other uses
of protests are for elsewhere) it can’t be something people can just ignore.
Alinsky’s politics made him enemies, and he spent his life fighting them. Many
of the same sorts who so resented say, holding shop-ins (packing department
store with discriminatory labor policies with black shoppers to spook affluent
whites) are still alive and circulating in American politics today. That Alinsky
was on the right side of history apparently still galls them.
But at the same time, separating the book from the author, “Rules
for Radicals” is fairly… I don’t want to say banal, since truthfully it is a well
written and useful manual, but it is nevertheless a manual; and similar sorts
of advice could be found reading other treatises on strategy, tactics, and political
maneuvering. What might be especially useful is that it places these concepts
in the context of organizing and provides many illustrative (and entertaining!)
examples. Still, what is useful is not new to a 21st century reader.
For example, Alinsky was quite enthusiastic about the possibilities of the then
new tactic of campaigning for proxy votes. But those tactics are now well known
and widely used, precisely because they were effective.
The advice in “Rules for Radicals”, like all advice, is
easier to give than to follow. In no particular order, and with no guarantee of
completeness, I’ll try to summarize and comment on the key notes.
First, the organizer is advised to always respect the personhood
and dignity of others. That this advice needs to be given is somewhat embarrassing.
That it is not always followed is downright shameful. The organizer must be liked by the organizees, since there is
no power to compel they must freely give their support.
Second, the organizer is advised to have a pragmatic, even
cynical view of human nature – the sort of view you can find, expressed mathematically,
in most economic models. At the same time, people are reliably irrational and
you can use that. For example, Alinsky believes that people seldom right thing for
the right reasons. However, you can get them to the right thing for the wrong
reasons, and once that is done they’ll rationalize their behavior so that in
their mind they were right all along. There’s much more than that, but this is
a review and a summary, so if you are curious you’ll have to read up on these
things yourself.
The third piece of advice is to meet people where they are
and stay within their frame of reference. This is part of the art of organizing
– different communities will have different experiences, and so different things
will be possible. Essentially the organizer must have low expectations. The
best organizing involves the uninvolved, which is hard enough to do when all
you need is signature, let alone a more substantive contribution. So make
things as easy as possible for people.
There is one other thing that stands out in Alinsky’s understanding
of organizing, and of politics in general. Alinsky understands that politics,
especially politics in a free, democratic society, is about more than power and
incentives, substantive gains and losses. It is about theatre. Showmanship, the
emotional appeal, the narrative presented to the mass audience is just as important.
Maybe more important. To quote Napoleon:
“A man does not get himself killed for sixpence a day and a
piece of ribbon. You must speak to the soul to electrify him”.
No comments:
Post a Comment