A-Infos (en) Spaine, Regeneracion: Deconstructing Frustration - Activism requires personal and collective construction. This construction is a process, always unfinished. By EMBAT (ca, de, fr, it, pt, tr)[machine translation]

Index | Defeating Defeatism | Calm | Regaining Enthusiasm | Limits | 
Self-Care | Conclusion ---- We must not only acquire new skills, both 
technical and relational, but we also have to know how to manage the 
emotions involved in developing activism. One of these emotions is 
frustration. ---- When frustration appears, it can do so silently, 
timidly, or abruptly, but in all its forms we should know how to 
understand it, embrace it, and ultimately, understand its limits and 
reasons. We must have the clarity to discern whether it is reinforced by 
activism or stems from our personal situations/moments. Dissecting which 
part is collective and, therefore, social to be overcome, and which part 
we have to manage personally is not a simple matter. Of course, there is 
no isolated self, but everything has its limits. All this, this task 
carried out without projecting that frustration, spitting it out towards 
the other colleagues with whom we share spaces.

Undoubtedly, together we are stronger, we endure, and we grow. But we 
can also be placing a heavy burden of responsibility on the collective 
space that belongs to us, due to personal incapacity, immaturity, or 
even as an unconscious control mechanism. This can drag others into an 
atmosphere of negativity, of "taking care" at best, and of collective 
paralysis at worst.

When we fill meetings with words of overwhelm, frustration, and so on, 
we can achieve several results: others may begin to doubt whether they 
are doing enough because they aren't feeling that way, they don't 
perceive it that way, and they are afraid to question those who do. Or 
perhaps guilt is directly triggered (very prevalent in societies with a 
Judeo-Christian culture). Should I be just as overwhelmed/frustrated? If 
I'm not, and I'm working patiently, does that mean I'm not doing enough? 
It's clear how dangerous it is to follow that line of thought, isn't it?

Mistaking collective space for a kind of pseudo-therapeutic space can 
lead to many misunderstandings. It can cause the space we inhabit to 
prioritize relationships and, therefore, invisible hierarchies based on 
who can accumulate "social capital," who knows how to cultivate these 
relationships and promote their status within the group, and so on. 
While this undoubtedly has its weight and intrinsic value, it shouldn't 
be the group's main focus if the established objectives are different. 
The organization and achievement of collective goals can become 
secondary. Perhaps not explicitly stated, but that's how reality is 
perceived.

Of course, it's not about living as if there were no problems or areas 
for improvement. The point is that by collectively sharing our stress 
and frustration, we can drag others down with us. But we can also 
overcome it collectively. How we communicate and manage it, both 
individually and collectively, is crucial and carries weight that we 
cannot underestimate or ignore.

Learning to manage certain situations means learning to accept their 
magnitude and limitations. It also means accepting mistakes and errors, 
and accurately assessing their boundaries. It means taking risks on 
something that doesn't turn out as expected and accepting it in order to 
learn and know how to let go. If your proposal isn't approved, put its 
importance into perspective and don't get bogged down in every detail, 
every comma, every step. Start by acknowledging that perhaps it won't 
carry much weight in the medium and long term; that it won't be the 
deciding factor, trusting that perhaps others are right and we're wrong. 
And move forward.

Defeating defeatism
The culture of defeat, not just the "no future" mentality, has swept us 
away and has been readily embraced by the dominant cultural and economic 
system. It can permeate us to such an extent that it can even be 
mistaken for a false illusion of "doing something," despite lacking any 
strategy, as something opposed to defeatism. But it can become a chimera 
that ultimately explodes into a thousand different forms of defeatism, 
which will eventually lead us to a standstill of frustration. And from 
there, it's difficult to escape.

The calm
In a dictatorship of immediacy, perhaps we must reclaim calm and 
tranquility. This is part of resisting the dominant culture; it's 
essential when making decisions, questioning, and responding. And this 
shouldn't be confused with paralyzing everything or stifling the 
efficiency expected of a collective and revolutionary response. Life 
doesn't stop. We never cease to be something like "multitaskers" 
(whether we like it or not). Even though it's such a fashionable term in 
some productivist circles, we never stop being sisters, friends, 
mothers, daughters; we work/study or are part of various collective 
spaces. We assign ourselves and others assign us tasks in these 
multifaceted roles.

Speed and urgency can be imposed by circumstances, colleagues, or 
self-imposed. But conveying what we consider extremely urgent without 
pausing to consider whether we are passing on our own stress (which we 
haven't been able to manage) can only be an attack on the very 
foundation of collective serenity.

These rhythms of unhealthy "productivity" cannot be transferred to 
spaces of militancy.

Of course, sometimes there are urgent matters, but when " everything " 
is urgent, it becomes pointless and inefficient, and I would even say it 
ends up being unhealthy and leading, once again, to frustration. It's a 
sign that something is wrong. And we must be clear that responsibility 
and commitment to the revolution are forever. And rushing can make us 
stumble over every stone.

Regaining hope
We must rediscover our enthusiasm without falling into the trap of 
thinking "everything will be alright." We can accept frustration and 
moderate our self-imposed demands. We must learn to recognize our 
limitations, both personal and collective, as well as those imposed by 
circumstances; without letting that become an easy excuse, a pretext for 
shirking responsibility, or a shield to justify our broken promises and 
lack of concern for the community.

But above all else we must feel a certain enthusiasm, recognizing and 
valuing the path we have traveled.

Is it difficult to feel enthusiastic on a path filled with meetings, in 
a dense training program, while learning or having a debate/meeting? 
Yes, perhaps. Or we can consider how we experience it, or how we build 
it for ourselves. Making that path more pleasant and enjoyable, without 
projecting all those frustrations. Without living in constant group 
conflict. But deep down, it's also strange to always be stressed, 
worried, with a frown on our faces. Building all those moments, those 
steps, and imbuing them with a certain enthusiasm (once we accept that 
things won't go as planned, acknowledging that there may be some minor 
frustrations along the way) has a certain liberating quality.

The limits
It's essential to understand the depth of this interplay of light and 
shadow. Accepting the shadows, the frustration, the denial, and so on, 
must serve to highlight the light, the hope, and the energy to move 
forward. If this isn't the case, we urgently need to rethink our path.

The spaces in which we are active should have clear limits.

To make it simple, even if it means simplifying, here are some examples:

Is it a space created around a campaign? It has its limits and specific 
objectives; there's no point in extending them beyond that. It can have 
a beginning and an end, a closure (although it may later be reconfigured 
in other spaces).

Is this a political/trade union organization? We have to accept that 
it's a long road and that the levels of involvement, preparation, etc., 
will fluctuate (it will fluctuate, and knowing how to adapt to each 
moment is a primary task).

And just as in the collective, in the individual, the rhythms are 
different. Our lives are different. Whether we're 20 or 60, recognizing 
these diverse needs and paces (in others and in ourselves) is essential. 
Not as a desire we want to achieve, but as a material reality that must 
be incorporated into our analyses to refine our intervention, take care 
of ourselves, and be effective.

Just like campaigns, organizations, and relationships, hope must also be 
built and nurtured. As revolutionaries, we must have the hope and the 
certainty that what we do has great potential. That we can recognize 
both the advances and the setbacks, knowing how to measure the overall 
impact of both.

The care
When we talk about limits, we must also talk about care, understood with 
a perverse "what about me?" approach (never expressed that way, of 
course). Care is either approached from a collective perspective, that 
is, with the common good in mind, or it becomes just another outlet for 
the base individual passions to which neoliberalism always leads us. And 
this has been used both for that purpose and to play the victim and 
manipulate the collective through blackmail and the use of "pain" as a 
disabling factor for mature and honest political debate. This hijacks 
the entire healthy process of dispute, trapping it in the intricacies of 
"forms," which are often hierarchically structured, with some able to 
lose them and others not, hiding behind that "pain." As a warning, 
perhaps, when we hear too many "but I...", alarm bells should ring. 
Care, yes, but with the collective space at the center, survival, and 
always "we" before "I."

Conclusion
To be able to imagine another world in the near future, without being 
overwhelmed by the complexity of everything around us. Because history 
proves it. There are changes, there have been changes, and there will be 
more.

To be protagonists, as a revolutionary society under construction, 
depends on reinforcing and building that hope, and overcoming defeat and 
frustration. Ultimately, it means moving forward and building from where 
we stand.

Although frustration will always be present, it's essential to consider 
deconstructing it along our path. Because our lives and our struggles 
depend on it. And one without the other is meaningless.

Ignoring these issues, along with training and more theoretical debates, 
leads us, we believe, to repeat habits without critically examining 
them. And at the same time, it demonstrates that we have the privilege 
of entrenching ourselves on certain topics, barely building anything, 
because first we need to have "x" element perfect. And with what we have 
before us, we cannot afford this. Too many lives, present and future, 
are at stake.

O. Neto

https://regeneracionlibertaria.org/2026/03/24/deconstruyendo-la-frustracion/
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