Saturday, July 5, 2008

Saul Alinsky's principles for a nonviolent community.

I found this list of principles for practicing nonviolence in Walter Wink's book Jesus & Nonviolence: a third way. He is quoting Saul Alinsky's list found in his book "Rules for Radicals" (Random House, 1971)

  1. Power is not only what you have but what your enemy thinks you have
  2. Never go outside the experience of your people
  3. Whenever possible go outside the experience of your enemy
  4. Make your enemies live up to their own book of rules
  5. Ridicule is your most potent weapon
  6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy
  7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag
  8. Keep the pressure on
  9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself
  10. The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition
  11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough, it will break through to its counterside
  12. The price of a suffessful attack is a constructive alternative
  13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, polarize it

  14. (Wink's Additional Rule)
  15. Never adopt a strategy that you would not wnat your opponents to use against you

What do you think?

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