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ThatDamnedPanda -> RE: The Alinsky Way - NYC Abortion Billboard (2/26/2011 1:55:20 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: TheHeretic
Well, Panda, I disagree regarding his significance and influence, and the connections between his teachings and legacy, and our President, pretty well guarantee he is going to be talked about.
As long as there are idiots blathering on the radio, and bigger idiots listening to their lunacy and whipping each other into a frenzy over it, yeah - he probably is going to be talked about. By a lot of people who have absolutely no clue what they're talking about.
Nobody who knows you is ever going to confuse you with an idiot, but with all due respect, you are an example of someone who doesn't seem to know anything about Saul Alinsky other than what he's heard from these idiot Beckheads. And you're helping their cause by helping them spread their paranoid, delusional, and just plain dishonest superstitions about Alinsky. No offense, but I don't think you know what you're talking about here.
I, on the other hand, do. I worked for most of the 1990s as a community organizer for several inner-city non-profits, and while I never had the pleasure of meeting Saul (on account of him being dead), I did work closely with a number of people who had known him, and some of whom worked with him. In addition, I attended and even taught at seminars and workshops around the United States over the years, and had many opportunities to meet and chat with people who had known Saul quite well.
And not a single one of those people consider him to have been anywhere near as influential as you guys all seem to think he was - at least, not in the way you guys whisper to each other around your campfires. Every organizer I ever met found their inspiration in Saul's passion and dedication, in his organizational genius, his brilliance at identifying and clarifying issues. Every single successful organizer I knew considered Alinsky a bit of an anachronism, a man whose philosophy and methods may have been a good fit for his particular moment in history, but whose more radical tactics were generally not effective or practical on a larger scale in today's world.
Any young organizer coming into the field and attempting to model himself after the Alinsky of the 40s and 50s would have a very short tenure in any community non-profit I ever saw, because nobody - including his co-workers - would trust him or respect him. He just wouldn't be effective at his job. Successful grass-roots organizing is about building coalitions, confederations, and partnerships across the cultural, racial, and economic boundaries in a community. It's not about dividing and sowing resentment and bitterness. That wedge may have been an effective tool a half century ago, but people have learned that it doesn't build lasting results. And anyone who seriously believes that the divisive aspects of Saul Alinsky have any significant influence on the politics of today's America simply doesn't know what they're talking about.
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