Now, it's certainly true, as Levine (and Chomsky) suggest, that sometimes victories are more nearly within reach than it appears, and there are those who work very hard to make popular victories appear impossible. But some struggles really are difficult, really do require long-term commitments and extreme sacrifices, and must include education and persuasion as well as mobilization.
It has been my personal experience, and that of some others I know, that engaging in activism strategically directed at the most useful possible success is enjoyable, far more enjoyable than sitting on the sidelines and complaining. I don't find that I have much use for or need of hope or the expectation of immediate victory. I find myself motivated primarily by the moral need to press for change, regardless of whether the wisest spectators predict success next week or next decade. (On the other hand, as noted at the top of this article, people's defeatism does eventually drag me down.)
So, I'm reluctant to endorse small victories, and even more so the expectation of early victories, as a necessary ingredient in civic engagement. As I understand it, people struggled to end slavery for generations with very little to show for it. Yet they were willing and able to keep struggling, and they were the same species of being that we are.
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