I still say he should have used an empty suit.
But....but.....I DID buy the "Hercules Hooks" and they are awesome. Work better than advertised. So there.
Alinsky... you magnificent bastard, I read your book!
One weakness with Alinsky, it’s dicey to ridicule above your station. Or as they say: if you go after the king, you better get him. Eastwood is an icon’s icon, and the libs didn’t bring the equipment to scale the mountain.
Alinsky had a good understanding of human political behavior, it’s our own fault that only the other side has been smart enought to use his methods...until now.
There are two kinds of people my friend.
Those who get things done.
And those who blame their failures on other people.
Check this out. The pure Michigan ad is an empty chair.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buhr3npNlxU&feature=player_embedded
I’m not convinced Eastwood’s performance was based on Alinsky.
For one thing, Alinsky didn’t invent ridicule or or caricature.
In fact, I doubt anything in Alinsky’s writings is ultimately his own idea.
And back to the idea of ridicule—only truthful ridicule has the potential to be good. The strength of Eastwood’s speech is is not in the way it might seem to resemble Alinsky tactics. It’s in the way it contrasts Alinsky tactics—Eastwood communicated the truth.
To summarize, Alinsky is ultimately weak both intellectually and morally. In the end, ridicule based on lies will fail.
And there is Fritz Perls:
The empty chair technique
Empty-chair technique or chairwork is typically used in Gestalt therapy to explore patients’ relationships with themselves or other people in their lives. The technique involves the client addressing the empty chair as if another person was in it.[21] They may also move between chairs and act out two or more sides of a discussion, typically involving the patient and persons significant to them. A form of role-playing, the technique focuses on exploration of self and is utilized by therapists to help patients self-adjust.(Wikipedia)