This article presents the author's response to Bob Fryer's contribution to the June 2011 issue of "Adults Learning". At a time when education and the public realm in general are suffering reversals, it is heartening to know that those who have been committed to the struggle for the disadvantaged are prepared to stand their ground. This is why the author very much welcomes Bob Fryer's contribution to this issue of "Adults Learning". Not only does it reflect Fryer's profound personal commitment to the cause of lifelong learning over many years, it also shows a willingness to learn from the past and from wider historical and international evidence. It is comprehensive in its scope, conceptually rich, visionary and ambitious, yet it remains grounded in the experience of the people with a clear democratic intent. In his response, the author poses three related questions and briefly discusses them by way of an appreciation: (1) whether lifelong learning should be part of the Big Society or the Good Society; (2) how people create a new culture of policy-making and policy learning; and (3) whether one should regard lifelong learning as the "final frontier" or the starting point of progressive educational thinking. Here, the author argues that lifelong learning is not only education at its most ambitious but an integral part of education for the "Good Society".