The point of the sort of thing our current President did in Chicago is to cultivate anger and a sense of grievance, such that you can assemble people at a certain place and time, get them to think the same things, say the same things, and do the same things. This is called “community organizing”, but in reality, the intent is to create a homogeneous and responsive group that responds to the commands of the organizer. There is nothing organic about it. It is, frankly, a version of Leninism, and is only a thin shade of grey away from Marxist “consciousness building”, if it is even that.
To that I would contrast what might be called Cultural Organizing. This is a non-manipulative effort to put information and ideas in front of people, such that they react to them. What you do is create the possibility of creative reorganizations in individuals and groups, without directing it. You put information out there, and wait to see what happens.
The path to a good future lies in the pursuit of generalized virtue. We can’t know, specifically, what twists and turns our nation and the world will take, but if people build on sound basic principles, in aggregate the outcome will be good.
As the deduction of information–of local, individual opinion, doubt, perception, and decision–so called Community Organizing is the opposite of this. Where Cultural Organizing is spontaneous, Community Organizing is planned. Where Cultural Organizing seeks to distribute power as widely as possible, Community Organizing seeks to focus it.