Contemporary emancipatory praxis is undermined by ‘activist fatigue’ related to the
uncertain efficiency of collective action. The article investigates the phenomenon
from a critical theoretical perspective. The crisis of praxis is inseparable from
the crisis of theory: to resolve them, critical theory's relation to suffering needs
to be revised. To provide an alternative framework, the perspective of consolation
is proposed as a counter to activist fatigue. Consolation does not aim at eradicating
the activists’ existential suffering; instead, it provides tools to live with the
uncertainties of activism. To elaborate a version of consolation capable of resolving
the crisis of emancipatory praxis, four questions are analysed: what is the relationship
between critique and consolation; how can the phenomenological space of consolation
be described; what are the contemporary constraints surrounding consolation; how can
consolation be consistent with both the demands of critique and the constraints of
late modernity, while avoiding activist fatigue?
