“But, Phoebe, I’m bearing witness,”…. “Who’s interested in your conscience?”

Lessing describes the state of protest in the late 1960s, the extent of the feeling, but also the apathy, the relentlessness, the sense of community spirit and fervour, but also the nagging feeling of pointlessness, the idea that the protest was not significant for the sake of the course, but for the fact of the right of protest itself.

If people considered the history, the effect, the impact of such marches, “would they, we, still be putting one foot before the other across earth to say: Down With… or Ban the… or More Money for… Well, yes, it seems more than likely. To move from one point to another on one's feet, as a means of expressing communal feeling about something or other seems basic.”

Lessing, always questioning, always self-destructive in her desire to change countered by the crushing weight of realism.

Little wonder the solution was always “other” for her.