Don't Do That!

'How!'
'Don't do that!'
What?'
'Enquire.'
'What's your number?'
'What?'
'Your number, what is it?'
Be careful.'
'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight...'
'Quiet.'
'....nine, ten, eleven, twelve, thirteen, fourteen, fifteen, sixteen?'

    Such is the conversation between No.6 and No.86 in the early morning of Once Upon A Time. It is perfectly evident that No.86 is afraid of anyone enquiring about him. Afraid to give even his own number away to others, in this case No.6. Afraid to give anything away, to say the wrong thing, because someone might very well be listening and over hear what was being said. This is much the same as it was in Napoleon Bonapatre's France. His was a France of a police state, with a vast network of secret police and spies. Citizens were afraid to pass comment, or to express an opinion for fear of being denounced by a neighbour, and taken before the Committee, as was the case during the French Revolution.
   In the Prisoner epsiode A Change of Mind citizens of the Village are quick to denounce a fellow citizen as being Unmutual for not observing, or keeping to the rules of society. For simply not returning a citizens greeting can see one taken before the Committee. In revolutionary France, after being brought before the Committee, the next step was on the steps to Madame Guillotine. But in the Village, there is the operation known as Instant Social Conversion! There is much in common between revolutionary France and the Village, would you not say citizen?          Bonjour Chez Vous.