Crisis & Opportunity

"...it is necessary to attack the prevailing patterns of organized living in the community. 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 displaced by new patterns that provide the opportunities and means for citizen participation. All change means disorganization of the old and organization of the new." [emphasis in the original]*

This is the appropriate context in which Rahm Emanuel's now infamous comment should be read: "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste...This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before."**


*Saul D. Alinsky, "Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals", Vintage Press (1989), 116.

**Gerald F. Seib, "In Crisis, Opportunity for Barack Obama", Wall Street Journal -- November 21, 2008.