NB There are people who have suffered enormous physical and/or emotional trauma thanks to the State, corporations, violent counter-movements. Nothing below is intended to denigrate their suffering.
Ah yes. People ‘burn out’. Often for entirely predictable and preventable reasons (unrealistic expectations fostered by the group, unmanaged conflict within the group, other people not doing what they said they would and getting away with it, paying attention to the trajectory of our species).
Basically, if you stare too long into the abyss, don’t be surprised if the abyss winks back…
Some come back, some don’t, and in any case, people become walking billboards for why NOT to get involved in “green” issues…
Burnout avoidance tips from everyday feminism
Activist Trauma stuff
That thing I wrote about burnout avoidance, 15 years ago…
This quote from Marge Piercy’s “Vida”
“She was always late now – running, running, but never arriving. She never went to bed before three in the morning, and she was seldom allowed to sleep past eight. From the time she crawled out till she collapsed in her clothes, she no longer had time to read a book, bake a cake, listen to music, talk idly – and everything was empty palaver that was not about liberation, not about imperialism or racism or Third World struggles, about the war, the war, the war. If she went to the country, it was for a secret meeting or for target practice. When she ran into an old friend, she could think only what skills or contacts they had that were needed, what kind of speaking or fund raising or organising or liaison work they could do. Yet she had no feeling of accomplishment, because every morning in The Times, every evening on television, the war was stronger, and she was closer to exhaustion. They had not done enough, they had not risked enough, they had not tried everything, they had not fought hard enough, they had not, because the proof was before her every morning and every evening the war went on. It was raining blood outside whether she looked out the window or not; the blood was splattering down, and the hot wind that blew across the city smelled of ashes, of burning flesh. Obviously they had not tried hard enough if the war still went on.”’
marchudson.net 