Croak for a Generation

Rules for Radicals By Saul D. Alinsky Random House, 196 pp., $6.95 So this is Saul Alinsky, the “radical’s radical,” the man who organized the workers in Upton Sinclair’s jungle, the firebrand who scared the beans out of Eastman Kodak in Rochester, director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, teacher of César Chavez. What a letdown. Had a right-winger written a book like this, the vanity presses wouldn’t have touched it.

Alinsky is incredibly pompous: “Today my notoriety and the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment not only validate my credentials of competency but also insure automatic popular invitation.” He delights in dredging up old chestnuts, fiddling a bit with the wording, then presenting them as his very own clichés: “Essentially, life is a tragedy; and the converse of tragedy is comedy.” Wow. Never looked at it that way. And how about this comment on blue-collar types: “They use revealing adjectives such as ‘outside agitators’ or ‘troublemakers’ and other ‘when did you last beat your wife’ questions.” Now you could write about that sentence all day. Revealing adjectives? Revealing adjectives and other questions? And anyhow, where’s the sense? Why in the world should a self-professed outside agitator who teaches would-be outside agitators how to agitate find it paranoiac of blue-collar workers to blame outside agitators for agitating?

JR

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John R. Coyne Jr.

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Rules for Radicals By Saul D. Alinsky Random House, 196 pp., $6.95 So this is Saul Alinsky, the “radical’s radical,” the man who organized the workers in Upton Sinclair’s jungle, the firebrand who scared the beans out of Eastman Kodak in Rochester, director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, teacher of César Chavez. What a letdown. Had a right-winger written a book like this, the vanity presses wouldn’t have touched it.

Alinsky is incredibly pompous: “Today my notoriety and the hysterical instant reaction of the establishment not only validate my credentials of competency but also insure automatic popular invitation.” He delights in dredging up old chestnuts, fiddling a bit with the wording, then presenting them as his very own clichés: “Essentially, life is a tragedy; and the converse of tragedy is comedy.” Wow. Never looked at it that way. And how about this comment on blue-collar types: “They use revealing adjectives such as ‘outside agitators’ or ‘troublemakers’ and other ‘when did you last beat your wife’ questions.” Now you could write about that sentence all day. Revealing adjectives? Revealing adjectives and other questions? And anyhow, where’s the sense? Why in the world should a self-professed outside agitator who teaches would-be outside agitators how to agitate find it paranoiac of blue-collar workers to blame outside agitators for agitating?