Resistance, with its inextricable connection to freedom, expressed and enacted by the ‘essayistic’, plays a crucial role in this study and, most importantly, in our lives today. But questions abound. Has it become more difficult today to resist the ‘official story’ – the reporting of corporate/government fraud (almost inseparable), military cover-ups, torture, extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, loss of constitutional rights, increasing violence against women, war crimes, slavery and more – or have we been too overwhelmed to focus? In some ways, the shocking conditions seem to be awakening certain segments of the populace but the level of complacency is still frightening. It is troubling to find that there is no outrage, except for the consistent cry: ‘Where is the outrage?’

Woolf's call for participation, for activity, for critical thinking and critical reading seems quite urgent today, and we do see glimmers of hope as we watch sit-ins, reminiscent of the 1960s, and individuals with enormous courage who risk their lives to fight oppression.