Saul Alinsky
So, Rules For Radicals is changing up my game in a big way. If you haven’t read it and you’re interested in social activism (shouldn’t we all be?), I encourage you to pick it up.
First, the rules:
1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you
have
2. Never go outside the experience of your people
3. Wherever possible, go outside the experience of the enemy
4. Ridicule is a person’s most potent weapon
5. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy
6. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag
7. Keep the pressure on with different tactics
8. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself
9. Maintain constant pressure on enemy
10. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it
I’m doing more writing than I have in years and it’s amplifying my creativity in really unexpected ways (ex. I woke up and wrote my boyfriend a love letter on a lampshade). I forgot how invigorating nonfiction academic writing can be. Yeah, I said it. There’s something about analyzing social policy that really fuels me. Change isn’t nebulous. It can be tracked, defined and broken down to the letter. Instituting social change is a process, and I’m learning how to dismantle that shit. It’s thrilling.
Good morning from San Diego, where my apartment smells like a sharpie pen.
I have bangs. Again. I cut them myself in front of the bathroom mirror, leaned over the sink with a pair of fabric shears. Yeah. It came to that. So I go in the next day to have A. fix up my hair, knowing I’ve botched my bangs. She says, “Do you want the bangs worn forward or to the side?” I’m like, “Both. Is both possible?”
I got my first official client on Thursday. She’s hyper-intelligent, observant and bipolar- currently residing in a very high state of mania. She’s been in the system (foster homes, group homes, the works) since she was 9. She’s used to social workers coming and going. She’s no stranger to the initial intake session. She’s the seasoned professional in the situation. Not me. So, as we’re making small talk for the first time, and I’m nervous as hell, self-disclosing all over the place (who gives a damn whether or not I like Betsey Johnson too) she says, “You just got your bangs cut.” I’m like, “I did. How can you tell?” She leans back, confident, “Because you’re going back and forth. You keep moving them to the side, and then back to the front. You don’t know how to wear them yet.” I’m silent. Stunned. I look at her bangs, short and worn to the front with hot pink highlights. Again, self-disclosure, “You’re right. I’m still not sure.” She says, “Let me see them both ways.” I comply. She smiles and says, “They look cute either way, but you should stop fidgeting with them.” I start laughing. She asks me what’s funny. I tell her it’s nothing, I just appreciate her honesty. We’re off to a good start?
