Link to epub

Rules for Radicals is a window into the famous Jewish revolutionary spirit. A great read. It touches on morals, mindset and tactics. Both Nietzsche and Machiavelli make unexpected appearances. A recommended read to dissidents of any persuasion.

Selected Passages

Rules to the Ethics of Means and Ends

1. One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s personal interest in the issue. One’s concern with the ethics of means and ends varies inversely with one’s distance from the scene of conflict.

2. The second rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the judgment of the ethics of means is dependent upon the political position of those sitting in judgment.

3. The third rule of the ethics of means and ends is that in war the end justifies almost any means.

4. The fourth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that judgment must be made in the context of the times in which the action occurred and not from any other chronological vantage point.

5. The fifth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that concern with ethics increases with the number of means available and vice versa.

6. The sixth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the less important the end to be desired, the more one can afford to engage in ethical evaluations of means.

7. The seventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that generally success or failure is a mighty determinant of ethics.

8. The eighth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that the morality of a means depends upon whether the means is being employed at a time of imminent defeat or imminent victory.

9. The ninth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that any effective means is automatically judged by the opposition as being unethical.

10. “The tenth rule of the ethics of means and ends is that you do what you can with what you have and clothe it with moral garments.

11. The eleventh rule of the ethics of means and ends is that goals must be phrased in general terms like “Liberty, Equality, Fraternity,” “Of the Common Welfare,” “Pursuit of Happiness,” or “Bread and Peace.

Rules for Power Tactics

1. Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.

2. The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people.

3. The third rule is: Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.

4. The fourth rule is: Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.

5. The fourth rule carries within it the fifth rule: Ridicule is mans most potent weapon.

6. The sixth rule is: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

7. The seventh rule: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.

8. The eighth rule: Keep the pressure on, with different tactics and actions, and utilize all events of the period for your purpose.

9. The ninth rule: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.

10. The tenth rule: The major premise for tactics is the development of operations that will maintain a constant pressure upon the opposition.

11. The eleventh rule is: If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.

12. The twelfth rule: The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.

13. The thirteenth rule: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.

Selected Quotes

• I gave the young radicals seemed to me the only realistic one: “Do one of three things. One, go find a wailing wall and feel sorry for yourselves. Two, go psycho and start bombing—but this will only swing people to the right. Three, learn a lesson. Go home, organize, build power and at the next convention, you be the delegates.

• A word about my personal philosophy. It is anchored in optimism. It must be, for optimism brings with it hope, a future with a purpose, and therefore, a will to fight for a better world. Without this optimism, there is no reason to carry on.

• The means-and-end moralists or non-doers always wind up on their ends without any means.

• Machiavelli’s blindness to the necessity for moral clothing to all acts and motives—he said “politics has no relation to morals”—was his major weakness.

• Democracy is not an end; it is the best political means available toward the achievement of these values.

• The real action is in the enemy’s reaction. The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength. Tactics, like organization, like life, require that you move with the action.