Doing a lot of reading for a paper I'm writing on The Crisis of the Negro Intellectual. Pulled out an old Saul Alinsky book, Rules for Radicals:
"I detest and fear dogma. I know that all revolutions must have ideologies to spur them on. That in the heat of conflict these ideologies tend to be smelted into rigid dogmas claiming exclusive possession of the truth, and the keys to paradise, is tragic. Dogma is the enemy of human freedom. Dogma must be watched for and apprehended at every turn and twist of the revolutionary movement. The human spirit glows from that small inner light of doubt whether we are right, while those who believe with complete certainty that they possess the right are dark inside and darken the world outside with cruelty, pain, and injustice. Those who enshrine the poor or Have-Nots are as guilty as other dogmatists and just as dangerous. To diminish the danger that ideologywill deteriorate into dogma, and to protect the free, open, questing, creative mind of man, as well as to allow for change, no ideology should be more specific than that of America's founding fathers: 'For the general welfare.'" (Alinksy, p. 4)
This is helpful, and I appreciate it. I can see why Alinksy would roll like this. I'm the same way...but with black folks.
Posted by: Lester Spence at August 20, 2004 09:40 PM
Don't forget that despite Alinsky's distaste for and abhorrence of dogma he could also be extremely opportunistic and dogmatic as when he and his team helped a group of white home owners organize to prevent blacks from moving into their neighborhood. Alinsky was, for the most part, a decent person but he too was dogmatic around the issue of being willing to help people organize their community even if the issues that spurred their activism was personally and politically anathema to him.
Posted by: Darryl C. at August 20, 2004 06:01 PM