> However, that is often lost from the activists' perspective. Social
> movement participation has a profound effect on transforming one's cognitive
> frame - often leading to redefining the whole life of the activist and the
> whole world indeed in terms of goals and tactics of the movement. That
> often leads to loosing sight of a bigger picture. For one armed only with a
> hammer every problem looks like nail. These activists, or 'activistists" as
> our fearless moderator Doug dubbed them, become like little energizer
> bunnies, going and going and going and hoping in vain that playing their
> little drums will spark an avalanche - until they are run over by the wheels
> of history or their batteries run out of juice..
It never ceases to amaze me when I read cartoon depictions of activists here that claim to know something about the inner workings of our heads. Activists understand that there are bigger political and historical contexts which have an impact on our activism--Cindy Sheehan, for example, can only have an impact now, with widespread opposition to the war existing, whereas she wouldn't have registered two years ago when more people supported the war and the death toll was lower.
But activists understand that we, and the people we work with, have agency and aren't merely pawns of historical forces. Leftists are big believers in historical determinism, which might be the reason that they don't accomplish much. Sitting around talking about when the right historical moment will come about is like the apocalpytic Christians living their selfish lives in the belief that Armageddon or the Rapture(tm) will happen any minute.
The "activistism" that Liza and Doug wrote about exists, but it's unfair to use that description to dismiss all activists. We really are much smarter than that.
Chuck0