Activism is generally disappointing.
I first participated with groups protesting military aid to El Salvador way back in 1989, then I protested my government's (I am proudly an American, but no, I don't agree with everything my government does) build-up for war in the Persian Gulf, when we could have had a peace dividend, when we could have wound down the Cold War. (now we risk a new arms race with China and it's entirely unnecessary).
And the upshot is, peace groups have the same problems as any other groups. Posturing for status, jockeying for position, as well as long boring meetings (and not enough people practicing host behavior), and often leaders who are sorry they volunteered in the first, don't want any more work, and certainly don't want any more suggestions, and who actually feel some resentment to the whole thing. It certainly is not standing around singing Kum Ba Ya all the time.
Okay, and I wish the following wasn't true, but it seems to be true: Peace activists are more suspicious of 'weird' people than a kayaking or stamp collecting group would be (and by 'weird,' I mean anyone different in any way, including good creative ways, including neutral creative way, and including creative creative ways!) And I think this somewhat standoffish behavior is for two reasons: 1) they have heard enough stories of cointelpro, FBI surveillance, informers, etc, to be a little spooked, because although some of this is urban legend, they is enough element of truth to be concerned. Now, a civil libertarian may talk about this as a "chilling effect." People with a more authoritarian outlook who are simple against protesters may think that this chilling effect is good. Obviously I don't agree. And 2) people who feel strongly enough to publicly protest a war often have gone through a recent period of personal growth, and are now rather in a consolidation period. I think so. All I know is when I tried to talk about academic ethics (cool cats like Bertrand Russell, or modern versions of utilitarianism, and Bertie is only kind of sort of a utilitarian and it's probably better that way), that went over like a lead balloon. And to complicate matters, sure, I probably was doing my sometimes pattern of all sending-no receiving. I had a couple of friendship possibilities, didn't make friends. It's more light touch and then following up in a medium way (easy and comfortable), but there's somewhat more to it than just that, and I'm still learning.