“Rules For Radicals”– Book Review

During my winter vacation, I read, “Rules For Radicals” by Saul Alinsky. 

Review

Why read this book?  My inspiration was Newt Gingrich.  No, you didn’t misread that.  During the 2012 presidential campaign when Obama was running for re-election, my boy Newty kept bringing up Saul Alinsky; whatever Obama did or said, Gingrich would respond by saying, “That’s straight out of the Saul Alinsky playbook!”.  This begged the not-unreasonable question on my part, “Who Is Saul Alinsky?”.  Quite honestly, I had never heard of him prior to that, so I began to research him and found Alinsky to be a rather interesting character.  As soon as I was able to get my hands on one of his books, I promised myself it would be prioritized on my reading list.

So just exactly who was Saul Alinsky?  Born in Chicago over a century ago, he studied criminology in college.  While working at Joliet State Prison, he learned about life there and later developed the skills necessary to organize various groups of people – whether it was workers for the purpose of unionizing or communities in order to evoke change to improve their living conditions.  His efforts sometimes resulted in his occasional jailing (where he found time to do the majority of his writing).  Alinsky influenced not only Obama but also Hillary Clinton as well.    

The first chapter of the book, titled “The Purpose”, notes that in Abraham Lincoln’s first inaugural address, the president said something that is often overlooked in his history: 

This country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.  Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it, or their revolutionary right to dismember or overthrow it.

In other words, “It’s your country, do with it as you please”.  Some might interpret this as saying that he was calling for a war.  Another – and perhaps more likely – interpretation  was that he was just reminding people that we, its citizens, own this country (and by association, its government) and that the elected politicians are merely its temporary caretakers.  With this as an eye-opener, Alinsky catapults the reader into further, equally revolutionary concepts. 

The experience of reading this book was simultaneously exhilarating, invigorating and inspiring.  Chapter 2, “Of Means And Ends”, begins with the following question:  “Does this particular end justify this particular means?”  When reading it at the time the book was originally published (1971, a year before its author’s death), it might’ve seemed rather innocent; unfortunately, reading it in today’s context, it feels like something that could be used by terrorists as their very own justification.   

Other chapters include “A Word About Words” (in which he foresees Politically Correct terminology), “The Education Of An Organizer” (where he lists the qualities of a good organizer), “Communication” (arguably the funniest chapter), “In The Beginning” (wherein he states that you must start by gaining both credibility and trust), “Tactics” (lays out methods of how to get things done and where he reveals both his secrets and mistakes) and “The Genesis Of A Tactic Proxy” (how shareholders can use their proxy votes against a corporation). 

In the book’s 9th and final chapter, “The Way Ahead”, Alinsky almost seems to predict the coming of Trump by referencing the McCarthyism of the 1950’s in the following passage:

“It’s The Red Menace!”  Now, they are not only the most vociferous in their espousal of law and order but ripe victims for such as demagogic George Wallace, The John Birch Society and The Red Menace perennials. 

(In the above passage, substitute “Socialism” for the term “Red Menace” to put it in today’s context)

Throughout this chapter, the author outlines how to proceed by using the methods delineated previously and warns of the danger of doing nothing.