It's how you play the game
Winning is a matter of skill and strategy. Or is it a matter of wisdom?
“Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins— or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom—Lucifer.”
— SAUL ALINSKY
By now, most people should have gotten the memo: The issue is not Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, or red and blue states.
The issue is spiritual warfare.
Scripture tells us that the Enemy has come to kill, steal, and destroy. And that neatly sums up an objective analysis of the chaos and violence swirling around us. For millennia, Satan (Lucifer) has beguiled humanity while his acolytes, willing and oblivious, sowed rebellion in the masses.1
Everything that God has declared “Good,” the enemy seeks to pervert. And his organizers are helping him systematically destroy these holy things.
Marriage, family, childbearing, gender, and government—all of which are God’s ideas—are targeted by an onslaught of demonically influenced attacks designed to create chaos, instill fear, and force compliance with a “reset.”
The most recent and bizarre example of chaos is President Biden’s proclamation—and subsequent denial thereof—of Easter Sunday as “Transgender Day of Visibility 2024.” Billions of people were gravely offended by the President’s words and actions on one of the Holiest Days in Christendom.
And that’s the Enemy’s plan:
Agitate;
Ridicule;
Incite Radical Revolution;
Create a new reality.
The original Radical Revolutionary
According to the Bible, the world’s troubles began with the work of a disgruntled activist named Satan. He persuaded Adam and Eve that they were oppressed by a God holding out on them. He manipulated the message God had given the first pair and questioned God’s character. Finally, Satan seduced the “oppressed couple” with the notion that through an act of rebellion, they could create the reality they truly deserved.
And in an ironically perverted way, Satan was right. Adam and Eve—and by extension each of us—got a new and tragic reality in the deal. And the role of Community Organizer has been socially and politically viable ever since.
Satan’s motivation
It’s simple: In abject rebellion, Satan would make himself to be God. And all who emulate him repeat this folly—and reap personal disaster.
And [Jesus] said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.”
—Luke 10:18
“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
—Isaiah 14:12-14
Saul Alinsky, Disciple
Born in 1909, Saul Alinsky became a political activist in the Chicago area in the 1940s through his Industrial Areas Foundation which helped those he identified as oppressed “have-nots” fight for change. If a community invited him to come, Alinsky and his cohort would help them create the “reality” they desired.
In the aftermath of the turbulent 1960s, Alinsky harnessed the angst of disaffected groups seeking to throw off the oppressive establishment yoke of government, education, and social institutions. His seminal 1971 work Rules for Radicals provided the playbook for leveraging tactical objectives to elicit chaos and subsequent “change”—which Alinsky presumed to be a desirable outcome.
Alinsky’s key premise was that disaffected people had to become actively involved in the “creative process.” Passivity was abhorrent to him.
Following the Leader
Just as Alinsky paid tribute to the original radical, Satan, Alinsky’s followers adopted his methods for social evolution where “particular ends justify the use of particular means,” and Community Organizer became a euphemism for Radical Revolutionary.
In subsequent decades, among Alinsky’s progressive disciples were a fresh-faced Wellesley College graduate, Hillary Rodham, and a loquacious wide-eyed up-and-comer, Barack Obama. In 1969, young Hillary Rodham wrote her college thesis (There is Only the Fight—an Analysis of the Alinsky Model) having interviewed Alinsky and visited the Chicago area to assess the impact of his methods. Her dissertation was somewhat sympathetic to Alinsky’s methods and means.2
In the mid-1980s, Barack Obama honed his skills as an orator and Community Organizer in a church-based program in Chicago. However, the future 44th President of the United States had a larger vision for organizing people and leveraging their unmet desires for social revolution. Obama’s change would not be limited to pockets of oppressed communities but would blanket a nation hungry for hope in the post-9/11 era.
In a counterintuitive twist, even Far Right groups began assessing Alinsky’s doctrine to determine how they might leverage his organizational principles. The Tea Party adopted a modified version of his original work retitled Rules for Conservative Radicals.3
Today, some partisans brand Alinsky the poster boy for radical, social justice engineering with a glaze of Marxist Totalitarianism. Others laud his grassroots approach of applying a motivational burr under the saddle of discontent.
Your view of Alinsky might be impacted by a review of his “13 Tried-and-True Rules for creating Meaningful Social Change,” as outlined in Rules for Radicals:4
1. “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood.
2. “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone.
3. “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty.
4. “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules.
5. “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions.
6. “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones.
7. “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news.
8. “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new.
9. “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist.
10. “The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.” It is this unceasing pressure that results in the reactions from the opposition that are essential for the success of the campaign.
11. “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog.
12. “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem.
13. “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions.
You may recognize some of Alinsky’s “Rules” from their radical social application since Ferguson and Floyd. And you can be sure there’s more to come before the Presidential election in November.
Armed with information
Though often misstated over the years, this truth remains: Knowledge properly applied (wisdom) is power.
Whether you’re an Alinsky proponent or despise his methods, now you know more of the truth about the chaos swirling around us daily. The issue is not Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, or red and blue states.
The issue is spiritual warfare.
And each of us is a soldier in this campaign.
Lucifer (Light Bearing) was known as Satan (Adversary) after his expulsion from Heaven.
Saul Alinsky. (2024, March 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky
Saul Alinsky. (2024, March 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saul_Alinsky
Jones, J. (2017, February 21). Saul Alinsky's 13 Tried-and-True Rules for Creating Meaningful Social Change. Retrieved April 10, 2024, from https://www.openculture.com/2017/02/13-rules-for-radicals.html
The first part could be a hip pocket sermon, should you need one.
The second part an excellent tool in fighting for logic and common sense. We are in a battle, so it is a good thing that the whole armor of God is available to us.
Alinsky's emphasis on "tactics" points up the truth (that I like to claim but that very few people seem to believe) that leftism is not an ideology. It is a social group. It is like-minded people with a common goal, who use lies as tactics, not ideas or truth, to achieve it.
Yes, the evil one is here. It seems that Armageddon is upon us.