In Praise of Boring
Doing work that doesn't feel matched with the present urgency is hard. But it needs to be done.
One of the signature emotions of fascism is how overwhelming it all is. A never-ending litany of new outrages, perpetrated by a movement that seems to have endless momentum. We don't even have time to orient ourselves to each fresh hell before another arrives. It's exhausting.
This is, of course, part of the idea. Bulldoze opposition, make it seem like standing up is pointless so that nobody notices how successful resistance actually is. But it has another effect, one that I think is less talked about - the urgency and immediacy of fascism's arrival makes it hard to do the slow, critical work that movements need to survive.
The frenetic energy of fascism makes us feel like we must match it, or be outrun - and sometimes that's true! But it makes it all but impossible to convince yourself that it's "worth it" to have coffee and chat with someone new to the movement, or write an organization's procedures down to help new leaders adjust, or read some history you think is relevant to the present. The fascist cult of action for action's sake spreads, pulling us away from the day-to-day and - frankly - often boring work that is nonetheless the foundation that movements stand on. Impending fascism demands that we do something, anything, now! We can't simply let them get away with it!
This same mindset not only dries up energy for slow work, it pushes us into burnout on both a movement and a personal scale. Recklessness becomes more and more tempting as the slow work of strategy and movement-building is pushed aside as "not as important right now" next to the urgency of the moment. Organizations overextend themselves, take risks at dangerous times, and find that there is no foundation under them when they fall, no strategy to refer back to or new leaders ready to step in for those burned.
As with community defense, plenty of people want to take part in a dramatic action that feels militant and like standing up directly (and personally) against fascism. And yet - it's a lot harder to find people willing to handle scheduling and logistics for a meeting, or greet new people and make sure they feel welcome.
In other words:
Or, if you'll permit me a quote from Lenin:
It is not difficult to be a revolutionary when revolution has already broken out and is in spate, when all people are joining the revolution just because they are carried away... It is far more difficult—and far more precious—to be a revolutionary when the conditions for direct, open, really mass and really revolutionary struggle do not yet exist, to be able to champion the interests of the revolution (by propaganda, agitation and organisation) in non-revolutionary bodies, and quite often in downright reactionary bodies, in a non-revolutionary situation...
Do the slow work. Be boring. Keep organizing and building. It might not feel like it when fascism is bearing down on you, but that's where the future lies.