I just discovered this Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=313217598722222
It tells ten things you cannot succeed at by doing things that affect an opposite. For example:
#7 “You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred.”
Read the whole list….
Now some people will disagree with virtually everything on the list. My question is this: How do the rest of us, who do believe these tenets, use those disbelievers to make more wealth for society? For example, the “Cannot” given above is–believe it or not–NOT shared by the current prescient of the USA. Which means that class hatred is being promoted from the Oval Office as a means to heal societal wounds and further prosperity.
As ridiculous as that sound to some of us, as many as 40% of Americans embrace our president’s view of the world. They honestly believe, along with many members of Congress and the Vice President, that promoting class warfare is a positive solution to this country’s problems of internal strife.
The Great Saul Alinsky taught us: “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.” (The 4th Rule from Rules For Radicals.) But believers in “Cannot #7” believe that following our president’s view of the world will lead to more strife, less prosperity. So if those believers follow Alinsky’s rule and make the president’s followers live up to their rules, the Cannot believers will be promoting strife–the opposite of what they want. This was fine for Alinsky, who wanted to destroy society in order to rebuild it in his own image. But this approach is antithetical to people who truly want to help society.
This is a difficult place for Cannot believers to be in. Their options seem so limited. So most Cannot believers spend all their time complaining and whining. But that is not a solution either. The followers of “Cannot #7” must do something besides complain. They must find a way to use class-warfare promoters’ own belief to bring about some good for society.
I admit that is a challenge, but I have a proposal that might be the foundation for a positive corollary of Alinsky’s rule. My proposal is this: Admit the basis, but flip the conclusion.
Here, let’s admit that class warfare will lead to peace and harmony–after all, fighting that is like trying to change someone’s DNA. But then let’s propose the next step. Here the next logical step would be to empower the lower class to become the upper class and show the world how to do things right!
Enough said for this post. I will let this last piece sink in and return to this theme later.