By William R. Mann ——Bio and Archives--March 16, 2010
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“The change agent or facilitator goes through the motions of acting as an organizer, getting each person in the target group to elicit expression of their concerns about a program, project, or policy in question. The facilitator listens attentively, forms "task forces," "urges everyone to make lists," and so on. While s/he is doing this, the facilitator learns something about each member of the target group. S/He identifies the "leaders," the "loud mouths," as well as those who frequently turn sides during the argument — the "weak or noncommittal". Suddenly, the amiable facilitator becomes "devil's advocate." S/He dons his professional agitator hat. Using the "divide and conquer" technique, s/he manipulates one group opinion against the other. This is accomplished by manipulating those who are out of step to appear "ridiculous, unknowledgeable, inarticulate, or dogmatic." S/He wants certain members of the group to become angry, thereby forcing tensions to accelerate. The facilitator is well trained in psychological manipulation. S/He is able to predict the reactions of each group member. Individuals in opposition to the policy or program will be shut out of the group.The method works. It is very effective with parents, teachers, school children, and any community group. The "targets" rarely, if ever, know that they are being manipulated. Or, if they suspect this is happening, do not know how to end the process. Does anyone smell a rat here? Have any of you experienced something akin to this? Many, if not most of these Health Care Town Halls have been blatant attempts by Obama Health Care Organizers and Progressive Democrats to push reform, to demonize and polarize the opposition, and ultimately, to steamroller all of us with the Obama National Health Care Plan before we knew what hit us. The same technique has been employed with success at Union gatherings, Parent-Teacher Organization Meetings, School Board Meetings, and even within Political Parties themselves in order to weed out opposition and ram through changes to which most people would object if they had the full details.
“Alinsky has a well defined concept of organizing. When he talks to teacher organizers, he talks community organizing. Alinsky believes that the teacher association's real power base is not in the teachers, but in the community. He does not see our task of organizing them as any different from those of his own community organizers. Because he sees the teacher's power base outside the membership and in the community, Alinsky offers a straight line route to organization of that power base:Have you seen this at work in your PTO Meeting, or when certain School Board “Task Forces” were examining or reviewing textbooks for the upcoming school year? In the recent news, the Texas School Boards successfully rejected the Progressive in favor of constructionist books that teach historical and scientific facts and not the Progressive Agenda of untested hypotheses or political correctness.
- Forget the older teachers four or five years from retirement. They will fight organizing.
- Find one or several local teacher leaders.
- Get those teacher leaders to organize the community to put pressure on the superintendent or the school board to get things done for education. Develop a multi-issue base in getting to the community. Local taxes, for example, is an issue teachers could use to organize other community elements.
- Organize the community by using the natural interest in the children to get into the homes. That is, send teachers into the homes. Once teachers show interest in kids by visiting homes, they develop a relationship with parents.
- Once one or two teacher leaders begin to push and get near community wide success, the rest of the teachers will go along.”
“Ground rules for disrupting the consensus process (Delphi Technique) — when facilitators want to steer a group in a specific direction.It’s a dangerous world out there folks. Perhaps the most danger comes from those who would tell us what and how to think. It is time for all of us start examining that which we already know to be true and stick to our guns. Forced consensus is not consensus at all. There is no such thing as a free lunch. …and … If it sounds too good to be true then it is probably is. Resist! This is a war for our pocketbook, our mind, and our soul. If the progressives win, we will not recognize this country in ten years. "Mr. President, stop wagging your finger at me, I aint buying your shtick!" Thanks “Big Sis.”
- Always Be Charming. Smile, be pleasant, be courteous, moderate your voice so as not to come across as belligerent or aggressive.
- Stay Focused. If at all possible, write your question down to help you stay focused. Facilitators, when asked questions they don't want to answer, often digress from the issue raised and try to work the conversation around to where they can make the individual asking the question look foolish, feel foolish, appear belligerent or aggressive. The goal is to put the one asking the question on the defensive. Do not fall for this tactic. Always be charming, thus deflecting any insinuation, innuendo, etc, that may be thrown at you in their attempt to put you on the defensive, but bring them back to the question you asked. If they rephrase your question into an accusatory statement (a favorite tactic) simply state, "that is not what I stated, what I asked was… (repeat your question)." Stay focused on your question.
- Be Persistent. If putting you on the defensive doesn't work, facilitators often resort to long drawn out dissertations on some off-the-wall and usually unrelated, or vaguely related, subject that drags on for several minutes – during which time the crowd or group usually loses focus on the question asked (which is the intent). Let them finish with their dissertation/expose, then nicely, with focus and persistence, state, "but you didn't answer my question. My question was… (repeat your question). ”
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William R. Mann, is a retired Lt. Colonel, US Army. He is a now a political observer, analyst, activist and writer for Conservative causes. He was educated at West Point [Bachelor of Science, 1971 ]and the Naval Postgraduate School [Masters, National Security Affairs, 1982].