Shag wrote: 'it's not a skepticism about the leftists per se. it's based on something i've only recently started observing, and I'm not really sure why it goes on. in my observation, the skill of organizing (by which I simply mean, "getting shit done,") is really lacking for most people in general. part of it is lack of self-esteem. part of it is inability or lack of skills in making goals a reality. ...
But, wow, it's like herding freakin cats. I don't know whether it's youth, inexperience, lack of self-confidence, or what.'
I find this a lot, in all kinds of organising, whether political, or just ordinary (parent teachers' association, youth groups etc.). One ought to be cautious, I guess, in that organisers have always complained about the truculence of the organised ('get with the program, you guys!'), just like teachers complain about their students. Also, one ought to allow for different styles of organisation (more informal, less top-down - ten years after Seattle). You can see it in different ways. First off, it isn't hard to make an impact on a small group, just by stepping forward (whereas it used to be more like a bear-pit, with different politically aligned groups fiercely contesting every position). On the other hand, put any pressure on your fellow activists to hold to a plan, and things can often simply fall apart.
Still, it is not just leftist groups that are suffering from difficulties in organising. Lots of government and corporate groups have similar problems of managers that are incapable of giving a lead, diplomats who go native, establishment types who lose the plot, and so on. My daughters' school has a long-running difficulty filling the head-teachers' post - it seems that there is a real shortage of teachers in the UK who want to become heads.
The decline in managerial confidence is one of the reasons why business consultancies are booming. Managers who lack the will to make big changes tend to contract out the job. A friend of mine who works in business consultancy explained her job to me: 'I ask the managers what they thing they ought to do. Then I tidy it up a bit and tell them it is what they ought to do. They thank me for making the decision for them' - and pay her royally for it, too.