Saying yes, yes, yes to campaigning - especially if you don't have enough of a hinterland of other ties and passions to balance it out - is also saying no, no, no to other possibilities. And too much campaigning - like too much of anything - petrifies thought and habit.
For campaigning is not always the appropriate response to every situation. Scepticism, a refusal to back down, a iron faith in your own correctness, the simplification of for and against: these tools and others may be useful or not depending on the matter at hand.
At our best. I've witnessed campaigners take a seemingly helpless situation and carry all before them. At our worst, I've seen us turn an amicable discussion into a squabble, undermine our own stated desire for a win-win situation; all because we couldn't switch off the instinct that has served us so well at other times.
This is one of the reasons why I think mindfulness should be a core part of our training as campaigners and organisers. We throw ourselves into the cause all too often without a moment's hesitation, before even considering how and whether the battle needs to be fought.
Somewhere in the hardening of the instincts the fight can be lost before we've even opened our mouths.
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