On 8/2/13 7:29 AM, Tim wrote:
On Friday, August 2, 2013 4:15:27 AM UTC-5, F.O.A.D. wrote:
You mean *this* Saul Alinsky?
http://www.discoverthenetworks.org/i...asp?indid=2314
The very same. The funny thing is that Saul was far less a radical than
the elected creeps and non-elected creeps who run today's Republican
party. Saul's goal was to empower the powerless. The Republican credo
today is to "unempower" the powerless and concentrate all the wealth in
the pockets of the rich and powerful. Saul, a Russian Jew and a
patriotic socialist, understood and appreciated the teachings of Jesus.
Today's Republican hierarchy is more like the Roman aristocracy.
He was a communist that also supported anarchy, Harry.
Saul wasn't a communist, and said so anytime he was asked, as in this
quote I swiped from wiki:
Alinsky did not join political parties. When asked during an interview
whether he ever considered becoming a Communist party member, he replied:
Not at any time. I've never joined any organization—not even the ones
I've organized myself. I prize my own independence too much. And
philosophically, I could never accept any rigid dogma or ideology,
whether it's Christianity or Marxism. One of the most important things
in life is what Judge Learned Hand described as 'that ever-gnawing inner
doubt as to whether you're right.' If you don't have that, if you think
you've got an inside track to absolute truth, you become doctrinaire,
humorless and intellectually constipated. The greatest crimes in history
have been perpetrated by such religious and political and racial
fanatics, from the persecutions of the Inquisition on down to Communist
purges and Nazi genocide.
He wasn't an anarchist, either. But he did help the disenfranchised
shake up and change the white power structure, which was a good thing
then and is a good thing now.
When I brought him to the teachers' convention in NY State, a number of
members loudly protested. Outside of NYC at the time, the state's
teachers and their unions were fairly conservative. They thought Alinsky
was too radical.
"That's the whole point," I told them.
Right after that late summer meeting, somewhere between 50 and 60 local
teachers unions called strikes, even though they were illegal. Made me
proud!