What It Means To Be An Unmutual

    So what does it mean to be disharmonious, to be an unmutual? Not to want to join in, to be a part, a reactionary, to be a rebel in fact. Not to conform to how others think you should, not to "fit in", to be different to everyone else and have a neglect of social principles.

    As a long time fan of the Prisoner I have more often than not been something of a "Lone Wolf". True I was a member of a Prisoner appreciation society, but at the beginning that was simply so that I could get my hands on Prisoner merchandise which at the time was unobtainable anywhere else.

    It wasn't until nearly 15 years on when things went pear-shaped for me, that's when I involved myself with politics of that society, as did others. But as things were trying to come to a head, I could see that nothing was going to change and that I had been wasting my time. Because all that had been created at the end was a lot of hot air! So I walked out, I didn't resign, I walked out and never looked back. And to be perfectly honest I felt all the better for doing so.

   I didn't see myself as a trouble maker, as I didn't want anything for myself, but I did see myself as something of a reactionary. Rebelling against an appreciation society which had been turned into the village, and with the regime that went with it. Everything in fact that the Prisoner stood against, which when you think about it is quite ironic. A society which stands for its appreciation of the Prisoner, but which had taken on the guise of the village!

    There are other unmutuals about, created after they too left the Prisoner appreciation society after a time. The unmutuals, not a fan club, there are no members because there is no unmutaul society to be a member of. Yet a number of them come together in the name of the Prisoner, and that's fine because events held by the unmutuals do raise money for a children's hospice in Wales, and they are to be commended for that. Such is a one day event is this August at Portmeirion, PM2007.

   Do I attend such events as Prisoner conventions, well no, you have to be a member to be able to do that. And no, I don't attend events as posted on the unmutual website. One of No.2's sayings springs to mind "Been there and done that!" Because, as a fan of the Prisoner I'm long since done with attending such events, as a fan I don't tend to mix anymore where the Prisoner is concerned. I've reverted to being something of a 'Lone Wolf" again, an unmutual perhaps, and maybe the ultimate 'unmutual,' for I am no longer  involved with any group to do with the Prisoner. Because an unmutaul cannot be involved or be seen to be involved. Because once you do become involved you accept, you join-in and you stop being an unmutual!

Be seeing you