- “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have."
- “Never go outside the expertise of your people.”
- “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.”
- “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.”
- “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.”
- “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.”
- “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.”
- “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.”
- “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.”
- "The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition."
- “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.”
- “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.”
- “Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.”
The Genesis of Tactic Proxy
After introducing his main tactics for community organizing, Alinsky discussed how they should be implemented in a community. He believed that "accident, unpredictable reactions to your own actions, necessity and improvisation dictate direction and nature of tactics." In short, he knew that the use of his tactics could bring about unintended effects, and the best organizers would adapt and use those side effects to the advantage of the organization. Alinsky warned organizers about rigidly holding to the tactics they developed for their community to implement. He knew that accidental reactions would occur following actions taken by a community, and the organizer would have to adjust the tactics used to match possible side effects and unpredictable reactions. When discussing how to prepare a community's plans for these unintended effects, Alinsky asserted that free, open-ended communication between the organizer and the community was necessary. Also, he told organizers to be curious and sensitive to opportunities that may arise in the unintended effects of implemented tactics, to adapt organizational methods to the climate within which the organizer operates.
The Way Ahead
The last section covers Alinsky’s analysis of the white, middle class in America—the class he believed could potentially hold the most money and power in the future. During the 1960s and 1970s, the middle class represented a massive proportion of the U.S. population known as the"silent majority". Alinsky believed that in the future, the organization of middle class communities would be much more important than that of lower income areas. He believed that by organizing the middle class, he could unite the most powerful socioeconomic unit in the country. With their power, implementing policy change and direct action tactics would be much more effective because of the availability of resources the middle class held compared to areas where poverty was more prevalent. He analyzed this class by population and income and addressed the importance of organizing them towards social welfare as the next big step in moving America towards a more equitable society.