Rhetorical Analysis

1463 Words6 Pages
“The greatest enemy of individual freedom is the individual himself,” was a quote from Saul Alinsky, a community organizer in Chicago and a radical. He was known for his tactics to achieve any goal and was a man who empathized power. A shelter, Lincoln Park Community Shelter, would agree with Alinsky’s quote. However, both the shelter and Alinsky would not see eye to eye on many of the ways to deal with poverty. Alinsky’s tactics, which he listed in his book Rules for Radicals, are more about gaining power in a fleeting time span and they’re more aggressive compared to the tactics that Lincoln Park Community Shelter uses or shows. Therefore, Alinsky would not endorse the approach that Lincoln Park Community Shelter has embraced to address…show more content…
Firstly, the volunteers and workers at the Lincoln Park Community Shelter go outside of their expertise, which Alinsky stated not to do. In Alinsky’s book he writes, “The second rule is: Never go outside the experience of your people” (Alinsky 127). He means that don’t go outside your own experience if you don’t know much about it. The staff at Lincoln Park Shelter, however, do this as many of them aren’t and haven’t been homeless. They’re trying to help people from a highly rich, privileged neighborhood, and it’s a excellent location compared to those that the people at the homeless shelter are able to afford once they leave. While it may be a superior location to recover from poverty and help create a new life for themselves, it may also be damaging long-term. They might grow accustom to life around Lincoln Park, and once they move they might be disheartened at the much poorer location. They’re using the community’s help in order to empower the residents, but when they move out they might not find such a close

More about Rhetorical Analysis

Open Document