a cursory view of these provides immediate reminders of the democrat attack machine.
Juvenile hogwash. Still, one should be familiar with it so that they can identify and defang it.
Sounds like the rules for the Inquirer editorial board.
This sounds like the James Carville guide for living!
Sounds like the conduct of every stupid leftist I've ever come in contact with. Fits in perfectly with the conduct of the anti-Bush crowd.
"It's the economy, stupid!"
bump
Looks like he's taken the Rules to heart, eh?
Google Search on FR Archives for Saul Alinsky. The Rules have been posted before.
I've only briefly looked through Horowitz's rules for the first time in years, but it's interesting that both he and Alinsky take a mainly psychological approach that plays off the subrational aspects of human nature. I don't think such an approach is compatible with republicanism, which is based on the belief(fact? hope?) that people are capable of acting reasonably most of the time, or at least more capable than style-savvy aristocrats and monarchs.
Horowitz claims some people try to treat politics as a religion, where one cannot compromise at all. Well, there is certainly such a thing as a civil religion, and the politics he and Alinsky promote tend to undermine that. Alinsky, as I recall, says outright that this is a good thing. I don't know if Horowitz has addressed the question.
Letting your opponent set the terms of the debate is an easy way to lose it. Letting your opponent make the rules of political warfare seems much the same to me.
Bump.
Ping...
Moral Absolutes Ping.
These "Rules for Radicals" should be read by everyone who is concerned about the leftists' takeover of political and social life. Anyone concerned about "gay" rights, the ACLU, read freedom of speech, association, and religious expression should read this. I read Horowitz' "Radical Son" a couple of years ago and it was an eye-opener, I highly recommend it.
Let me know if you want on/off this pinglist.
I was just telling mrs lj about Gramsci today. Unfortunately what I know was explained in two minutes. I need to read up on him and his works, and who is following him today.
RULE 4:"Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules." If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity's very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
Compare with Theodore RooseveltThere is no more unhealthy being, no man less worthy of respect, than he who either really holds, or feigns to hold, an attitude of sneering disbelief toward all that is great and lofty, whether in achievement or in that noble effort which, even if it fails, comes to second achievement. A cynical habit of thought and speech, a readiness to criticise work which the critic himself never tries to perform, an intellectual aloofness which will not accept contact with life's realities - all these are marks, not as the possessor would fain to think, of superiority but of weakness. They mark the men unfit to bear their part painfully in the stern strife of living, who seek, in the affection of contempt for the achievements of others, to hide from others and from themselves in their own weakness. The rôle is easy; there is none easier, save only the rôle of the man who sneers alike at both criticism and performance.It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.