The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
Saul AlinskyRead
Life is a corrupting process from the time a child learns to play his mother off against his father in the politics of when to go to bed; he who fears corruption fears life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Life involves navigating complex interactions and moral challenges, and fearing these corrupting influences is a fear of truly living.
Saul Alinsky's quote highlights the inherent complexities of life, suggesting that from a young age, individuals engage in manipulative behaviors within their familial relationships, such as pitting one parent against another. This observation points to a broader commentary on how navigating such ethical dilemmas and interpersonal politics is an integral part of the human experience, and to fear corruption is to fear engaging fully with life itself.
Themes
LifeCorruptionFearPoliticsInterpersonal Relationships
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a discussion about ethical lessons taught to children.
More from Saul Alinsky
All quotes →Lest we forget at least an over the shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins - or which is which), the very first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom - Lucifer.
Saul AlinskyRead
The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people. When an action is outside the experience of the people, the result is confusion, fear, and retreat.
Saul AlinskyRead
The first step in community organization is community disorganization. The disruption of the present organization is the first step toward community organization. Present arrangements must be disorganized if they are to be displace by new patterns.... All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new.
Saul AlinskyRead
The threat is generally more terrifying than the thing itself.
Saul AlinskyRead
Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.
Saul AlinskyRead
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