Saul Alinsky

Saul Alinsky was a writer and community organizer who empowered the poor no matter their race. He strove to give a voice to the voiceless by organizing them into a body capable of massive protests, believing that the poor and disenfranchised would have more power to make their voices heard if they would come together and speak as one. In other words, he added the voices of the poor to our democracy. - Addicting Info dot org

Somebody mentioned Saul in a discussion about the disaster in Paris. Alinsky? Who's this Alinsky character? I never heard of him, so off I go. Seems he wrote the book (literally) on community organizing for the purpose of effecting political change. People of all political stripes have adopted his methods. Wikipedia has a summary.
    Makes me wonder why the poor are still so downtrodden. Could it be that the ability required to organize people is a rare talent? Seems to me that if his techniques are so effective, the world would constantly be getting better instead of sliding ever closer to the abyss. Maybe we aren't sliding into the abyss. Things have been going to hell since the beginning of time and we're still here, so maybe there is no abyss. We're just sliding down an infinitely tall hill.