Sometimes when casting, particularly when a wind is up and you are using a light lure, your line snarls. This usually happens at the worst moment. Top three memorable line snarls: 1) standing on the beach with a massive knot in my line and looking out to the surf just as a school of bluefish goes by; 2) dropping a critical part of my reel overboard while attempting a field “fix” of a snarled spindle; 3) watching people to the left and right of me reel in fish after fish, as I stare down at a bird’s nest of monofilament (this has happened so many times it has congealed into one, nightmarish, memory). When you get a snarl you need to take the time to pull the knots apart, picking at the strands with your fingernails, and tracing back the loops to locate the ur-knot at the root of it all, before you can resume fishing. But sometimes this is impossible because it’s too dark to see, or the knot is too tight, or the fish are biting — right now! — and you simply can’t wait. When this happens you need to cut the snarl out, discard the line, retie your lure, and start again.
There are always snarls in activism: conflicts internal to the organization or group that jam up the work. These snarls often have to do with decision making and group dynamics. They can be caused by leadership struggles as the authority of one faction is contested by another, or by conversations over ideology, strategy and the “correct line” to take in opinion and actions, and in everyday interactions as some people (usually white men) explain too much and others (often woman-of-color) don’t feel heard. Most of the time it’s worth working these things out. Groups will not grow unless all people are heard and respected and others step back and let others talk and lead, organizations will not be effective unless strategies and systems of power are worked out and agreed upon by all, and you can’t create a just world if your own practices are unjust. But sometimes working out these snarls takes over the entire activity of the group. This is exacerbated by the desire in many lefty groups to “reach consensus” through “participatory democracy” where everybody speaks and no one listens, and in the sardonic words of social movement scholar Francesca Polletta, “Freedom is an Endless Meeting.” When this happens, all activity turns inward and the original activist aims of the group get lost. An experienced activist learns when to fix snarls and when to cut them out and move on.