You Are Damned, We Are Saved Summary and Analysis

Lessing begins this chapter by describing the Rhodesia of her upbringing as a place where the ruling white minority holds extremely ugly prejudices against the black majority and considers anyone who disagrees with them to be evil, corrupt and sexually depraved. They seem to think their regime will last forever, although it lasts only ninety years, a blink in history. Lessing describes a long miners' strike in Britain in the 1980s, during which a miner goes back to work because he feels the strike's leader, Arthur Scargill, has performed badly. The miner is beaten in his home by his friends. Lessing writes that the wife is surprised by this, but should have expected it. Tight-knit groups automatically act together, she wrote, although a few resist the pack mentality, and this minority...