Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2000 22:21:02 -0800
To: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: John Hudson <jahudson@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: RE: [OM] Dirk Wright
Reply-to: olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
At 01:03 PM 09-02-00 Wednesday +0100, you wrote:
> > > "Who is number one?"
Wasn't "number one" the crook from SMERSH who was always being
targetted by 007?
jh
Imagine for a minute that you are a secret agent in the cold war 60's,
where it is still not clear whether or not the Soviets are going to take
over the world. You resign from your post and return to your flat,
hoping for a bit of a vacation on a sunny island somewhere. You are
gassed and wake up someplace else that appears to be populated by other
former spys. Everyone except you have a cheerful and accepting attitude.
No one except you ever questions authority. The people in charge want to
know why you resigned. You, as a loyal ex-spy, want to know who runs
this place so that you don't tell secrets to the other side. But, they
won't tell you, and insist on forcing you to tell via whatever means are
necessary. All you want to do is get out of the place and be left alone.
The parable of The Prisoner was the first mini-series, and symbolic of
mankind's life situation. In life, you can never drop out of the system,
and you will never know who's in charge. You are suspiscous of your
neighbor and those who appear to be in charge. You don't understand why
everyone else is so complaicent and maddenly cheerful all the time. All
you want to do is escape to a place where people can tell the truth to
each other. You want the people at the top to also tell the truth and
leave you alone in your freedom.
The Prisoner is a modern version of the ancient epic poem, where the
hero undergoes numerous challenges but finally triumphs. It plays on
people's fear of technology and authority, and the way authority uses
technology for there own purpose but never for the benifit of the common
man. The story mixes in psychiatric methods for extracting information
from people, and paradies several of the group therapy techniques that
were just beginning to become popular at the time.
Hope this helps
Be seeing you.
Dirk Wright
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