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Black Hole in Cyberspace 1

8/28/2013

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Black Hole in Cyberspace  Part 1

Conventional wisdom has it that Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) style face-to-face organizing is outdated and outmoded – a kind of political blast from the past.   The primary technologies invented by Saul Alinsky are now seen by many as quaint outcroppings of a now bygone era.  Today’s Alinskyites, according to this view, are building political ghost towns in desert wastelands far from the wellsprings of real power.   Short on scale, short on national reach, short on grand plans.  This is the critique delivered by a raft of politicians (including President Obama himself), academics, union leaders and political consultants.  

New modes of web based communication - faster, easier to scale, simpler to launch and subject to manipulation by a handful of super techies and their backers – are touted as a superior use of time, talent and money if change is the objective and utilitarian metrics the obsession.   Grand scale initiatives appealing to mega donors driven by the promise of big, fast change dwarf the slow, patient work of face-to-face organizing.

Modern political campaigns including the spectacular flare up of the first Obama campaign exemplify the high dollar, high tech approach to messaging, vote gathering and measured impact.  The fact that David Plouffe and company pursued the systemic integration of low tech “house meetings” to augment both the air and ground games of the first Obama campaign reflects the extent to which the imperial vision of candidate promotion digested face to face Alinskyite modalities for its own ends.  The house meetings served an important purpose of offering the appearance of attention and consultation to a voting population hungry for the touchstone of real engagement.  They also blipped upwards the high tech communications database and added bodies to the walks and talks of the ground game.

More sales event than real conversation the Plouffe/Obama approach betrayed the core value of the house meeting.  The campaign ended up compromising and trivializing the house meeting methodology even while succeeding at advancing an instrumental outcome – the election of Barack Obama.  From the point of view of political instrumentality these events were a grand success.  From the point of view of deepened democratic practice they were short term, shallow, deceptive and ultimately disheartening for legions of participants.

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Nugent Rocks What?

8/27/2013

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Watch out all you Alinskyites, Ted Nugent is out to get you.  But his hinge on the old gate seems to be getting a bit rusty.   Here's a sample of his latest talk dirty.  Check out his linkage of Alinsky with fascist goose steppers.  Never mind that Alinsky was a life long anti fascist not to mention a Jew.

Nugent's latest swing:

"The poor overworked tail must be near exhausted to death from all that nonstop dog wagging by the Joseph Goebbels and Saul Alinsky propaganda ministry scamgangbangers out there...

 "Taking their lessons right out of Saul Alinksy’s “Rules for Radicals,” the Speech and Thought Police believe they can silence opposition, including such powerful opposition as that by a rodeo clown, by smearing, vilifying and condemning anyone who does not march to their politically correct fascist goose-steppers".


Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2013/08/im-a-rock-n-roll-clown-so-ban-me/#34mtPmDr3arItar8.99 

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Colonialism of Altruism

8/1/2013

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In July Peter Buffett, son of Warren Buffett, delivered a scathing critique of the foundation/industrial complex that he is increasingly positioned to understand. He points to an age old reality associated with charitable giving, namely, that it often serves the interests of the giver more than the receiver. Saul Alinsky had developed a penetrating understanding of this phenomenon during the course of his career and resisted financially driven imposition on all fronts. As a consequence, organizations operating in the Alinsky tradition - particularly IAF - always push back against the demands of outside money to control agendas. This infuriates program officers, foundation boards and ROI preoccupied wealthy donors who find primary satisfaction in exercising power and control as they "do good". IAF and the Alinsky tradition represents the power of local squared as a counter to the colonialism of wealth.

Original article: The Charitable Industrial Complex

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    Frank C. Pierson. Jr.

    Frank Pierson

    Frank Pierson is a leading authority on the life and legacy of Saul Alinsky.    He may be reached at [email protected] 

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