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Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counterattack ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, who then react to your advantage.

Saul Alinsky

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Saul Alinsky
Age: 63 †
Born: 1909
Born: January 30
Died: 1972
Died: June 12
Activist
Human Rights Activist
Sociologist
Trade Unionist
Writer
Chicago
Illinois
Saul David Alinsky
Advantage
Infuriates
Impossible
Counterattack
Almost
Potent
Also
Ridicule
Men
React
Weapon
Opposition
Weapons

More quotes by Saul Alinsky

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Dogma, Whatever Form It Takes, Is The Ultimate Enemy Of Human Freedom.
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A racially integrated community is a chronological term timed from the entrance of the first black family to the exit of the last white family.
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Spouting quotes from Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara, which are as germane to our highly technological, computerized, cybernetic, nuclearpowered, mass media society as a stagecoach on a jet runway at Kennedy airport.
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The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.
Saul Alinsky
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One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.
Saul Alinsky
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The standards of judgment must be rooted in the whys and wherefores of life as it is lived, the world as it is, not our wished-for fantasy of the world as it should be.
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No issue can be negotiated unless you first have the clout to compel negotiation.
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Always remember the first rule of power tactics power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
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In the beginning the organizer's first job is to create the issues or problems.
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Democracy is alive, and like any other living thing it either flourishes and grows or withers and dies. There is no in-between. It is freedom and life or dictatorship and death.
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The only people who become disillusioned are people who have illusions.
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The classic statement on polarization comes from Christ: 'He that is not with me is against me.' (Luke 11:23) He allowed no middle ground to the moneychangers in the Temple. One acts decisively only in the conviction that all the angels are on one side and all the devils on the other.
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Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing - but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.
Saul Alinsky
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A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
Saul Alinsky
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The threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself.
Saul Alinsky
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The prerequisite for an ideology is possession of a basic truth.
Saul Alinsky
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Last guys don't finish nice.
Saul Alinsky
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Once you accept your own death, all of a sudden you're free to live. You no longer care about your reputation. You no longer care except so far as your life can be used tactically to promote a cause you believe in.
Saul Alinsky
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The end is what you want and the means is how you get it.
Saul Alinsky
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The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength.
Saul Alinsky