Natasa wrote:
Which I find rather interesting, because Bran Foster says Blake was arrested 4 years before the events in TWB - that is, when he was 28. Presumably at the time of that first arrest he must have been the leader of the Freedom Party for at least one year, to become so popular and annoying to the Federation. This means that Blake was leading one of the most influential rebel groups on Earth ('the only one that really meant something', as Foster says) at the age of 27. This is rather young for a leader, isn't it?
Alexander the Great was 23 when he won the battle of Gaugamela. Pitt the Younger was - well quite young when he became PM (24 I think).
You tend to get younger people in leadership roles societies where heredity decides your social status. Blake being an Alpha might have grown up with an assumption of command (let's face it he's just a tad bossy isn't he). This coupled with his undoubted ability as a strategist might have propelled him to the top of the rebel hierarchy rather quickly. There seems to be a simillar dynamic in Sula's relationship with Hob.
Another possibility is that Blake's R&D work on the Aquitar project was done in a university (post-doctoral work, say) and he got involved in the rebel movement via a radical student society. A group of younger people would be less likely to see a 27 year old as too young to be a resistance leader.
Stephen.
===== "I always have a quotation handy, it saves original thinking" - Lord Peter Wimsey.
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