pseudo-activity

is a mode in which we are active all the time to make sure that nothing will really change (like in academic debate).

Even in much of today's progressive politics, the danger is not passivity, but pseudo-activity, the urge to be active and to participate. People intervene all the time, attempting to 'do something,' academics participate in meaningless debates... the truly difficult thing is to step back and to withdraw from it. Those in power often prefer even a critical participation to silence just to engage us in a dialogue, to make it sure that our ominous passivity is broken. Against such an interpassive mode in which we are active all the time to make sure that nothing will really change, the first truly critical step is to withdraw into passivity and to refuse to participate. This first step clears the ground for a true activity, for an act that will effectively change the coordinates of the constellation. (zizek 'how to read lacan' 23)

pseudo activity, n.All

pseudo activity