Alinsky Thoughts

One of the things fascinating aspect of Alinsky is his somewhat Machiavellian advocation of using the people (which often means fooling them) as a means of accessing power. He professes a very Marxist disdain for the materialism that defines the bougeois lives of the middle class, yet he recognizes them as the next resource to tap for organizers. I think an interesting topic for discussion would be to what extent his prediction that "organization for action will now and in the decade ahead center upon America's white middle class" became a reality. I think the rise of interest groups since the 1970s is a good example of one way the prediction played out.

One other point I would like to make is that even though Alinsky claims the purpose of an organizer is to "seize power and give it to the people", his real purpose seems to be to amass people in great numbers and control the power which follows by manipulating them. His organizers seem like an elite class. They may not have an inherited status of privilege (Alinsky describes them as rebels against their middle-class backgrounds), but they distinguish themselves in subtle ways from the people they lead. The attitude of Alinsky's great organizers reflects their special status: they constantly rely on superior wit and ingeniuos tricks to rile the passions of the people and spur them to action. (i.e. when Alinsky got an entire neighborhood to march downtown and demand a new clinic that they need only request in order to build the confidence of the people). Even the most well-intentioned organizer can't help feeling smarter or better qualified to lead than those he manipulates. Similar to the idea that a priveleged class has the responsibility to govern those less fortunate, Alinsky believes that the ends the organizers hope to achieve justify their more dubious means.