We expect the attacks and derision, the hatred and spears of our foes. For it was their assaults that awakened us to intelligence, and our opposition endowed us with the assets and perspectives necessary to reply to these forces with power and truth. What is daunting — and indeed, threatens to destroy us — is at once ordinary and unthinkable: the grave indifference of our own family, dearest friends, and those who claim to believe in us — yet do nothing whatsoever to demonstrate such conviction in the face of our trial, travail, or even death. The lethally passive silence of our allies — or their direct participation in assaults against us — is the most cruel, and thus instructive, of burdens.