Is The Prisoner Subversive?

    There are two ways of looking at No.6, as a hero, who is very brave, strong, a man of steel who will not give into torture, and coercion. Who has held fast, resisted, maintained his individuality,against an enemy who wishes to extract the information in his head. Nay, to turn him to the Village, to make him one of them! As in the case of Cobb, who musn't keep his new masters waiting, and No.2 who stated in his address to the Delegates of the Assembly in Fall Out, that what is so deplorable is, that he resisted for so short a time!
    Then again No.6 could be seen as being a subversive, not wanting to co-operate. Refusing to accept the Village and it's society. Someone who will not settle down, and only responding to his number when it suits him! Is that what the Prisoner is, a political subversive message, dedicated to the individual so to engage in acts of revolt? Certainly the Prisoner applauds anarchy. In the 1960's when the Prisoner was first screened in America the episode Living In Harmony was not shown amid the series, because it was seen as subversive, in showing an American who refuses to carry a gun, soemone who will not kill. And that was not what the American Congress wanted Americans to hear and see, because of the Vietnam war, and the draft that was being carried out at the time, and Uncle Sam needed brave men to go and fight Communism in Vietnam.
   In it's time the Prisoner has attacked the education system - the Courts - religion - the election process - and cocked a snook at democracy, which the Village has dispenced with for it's lack of efficency. So what does the Prisoner stand for? Well basically the right of the individual to be individual. But then is society not made up of individuals, and if it were not for such individuals society would not exist!
    Is No.6 some kind of role model? Should we follow in the footsteps of the Prisoner? Well to be perfectly honest, only if you are aboducted from your home and family. Abducted and taken to a place as alien as the Village. To he held there. Questioned - Interrogated - manipulated - coreced - and held Prisoner for any length of time. Because it was until his resignation and subsequent abduction to the Village, the Prisoner-No.6 was a successful, and accepted member of the establishment. He was good at his job. He had a comfortable home. He was going to marry the bosses daughter, Janet Portland. No, it was not until the Village, did the Prisoner revolt agaisnt his captivity and those who held him captive. He was even offered the chance of ultimate power, to become No.1, which the Prisoner also rejected. Which only goes to show that the revolutionary can never accept anything, otherwise he ceases to be a revolutionary! I can think of many people whom I have known in ordinary life who would like it very much to 'lord' it over others. Those who seek a position of power [wherever they can find it} just for the sake of it, just to be important, but not actually wanting to do anything.
    There are many ways of looking at the Prisoner, and he can be whatever you want him to be. But basically I think the Prisoner is a great moralist, in finally rejecting either his darker self, or the offer of ultimate power, choosing not to be No.1!
BCNU