Editorial: Dissenting Lives

Dissent is most memorable when it is public, explosive, dramatically enacted. Yet

quiet dissent is no less effective as a methodical unstitching of social and

political mores, rules and regulations. Success depends, perhaps, less on

intensity than on determination, and while Margaretta Jolly makes no such

distinction when she refers to 'persistent dissenters' in her contribl,ltion to this

collection, much of the writing she examines falls into the latter category.

Moreover, although many persistent dissenters often gain an iconic status, most

live dissent in the fabric of their ordinary lives.