Marian wrote:
The principle of democracy only entered Liberator after Blake left.
Yes, it's so 'difficult' to be democratic when you have to decide whether you're going to indulge in some piracy or leave it for the next week's show and go and watch the champions of two warring planets fight instead. Like those four vultures at the end of Disney's 'Jungle Book': 'What're we gonna do?' 'I dunno, what'd you wanna do?' and they're saying it over and over again.
Blake had a feeling of urgency and sometimes he probably just couldn't understand how come others don't have it. It reminds me of a poem by Bertold Brecht, Buddha's Tale of a Burning Home. Buddha sees a burning house. He enters and yells to the people that their roof is in flame, and that they should come out quickly. But they're not in a hurry. One of them, whose hair is already singed, asks whether it's rainy or windy outside, whether there are other houses nearby, and so on. Buddha says, 'To those who think this world isn't so hot that they'd rather replace it with any other than stay here - I've got nothing to say.' For Blake, the Federation is a burning house. The others are still discussing the weather. Democratically.
N.