Confidentially Speaking

The Prisoner - The General.
    "Thank you gentlemen for your confidence in the General, and now to show our confidence in you, we will give you an entire breakdown of the entire operation, in confidence of course."
                                                                                                       {No.2 - The General}

    "Speedlearn is the outcome of the General's prolific knowledge. It's basis is, the students confidence in a tried and trusted Professor, and the Professor's confidence in science."
                                                                                                 {No.12- The General}

    After watching the episode of The General a few weeks back, I got to wondering why so much emphasis had been placed on the word Confidence by both No.2 and No.14 when addressing members of the Educational Board in the Boardroom. And it was whilst perusing an old artilce about The General that I read the following by the script writer Lewis Greifer who said when asked about the "Confidence" puns. "At about that time Pat McGoohan and I joked with each other about an old-fashioned appellation "Confidence Agent." McGoohan had asked Greifer who his agent was, and Greifer responded that that was confidential. McGoohan replied "Confidential agent" and repeated it a few times, laughing. If this someone whose identity is secret, is it someone you trust? Number Twelve asks, "Who do you trust Number Six?" And the Prisoner answers "I trust me." "Join the club" is Number Twelve response.  And ironically, as it turns out, Number Twelve can trust Number Six, whose last gambit is an attempt to save Number Twelve from Number Two's suspicions.
   In The General Speedlearn is nothing more than a humungous con. In a sense confidence is at the very core of education. Parents confide their children to school, confident children will be filled with knowledge. But whose knowledge will it be? And what will happen to their curiosity, or their freedom to learn? Or for that matter to their confidence?
    And of course Number Six could be described as being a former "Confidential Agent," because when Number Six and Number Two were role playing in the Embryo Room of Once Upon A Time, Number Six was recruited by a supposed Bank Manager, into a "Confidential" job. And when Number Six, in another role playing scene, he was brought before a Judge for speeding and killing people in a road accident, Number Six demanded in his defence, that he had been on a mission of secret and "confidential" business. In fact it was "State confidential business!"
Be seeing you