Don't Do That!

No.6 asks: How?

Don't do that! No.86 returns.

What?

Enquire! No.86 tells him.

What's your number?

What?

Your number. What is it?

Becareful.

1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8......

Quiet.

............ 9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16?

   Such is the conversation which takes place between No.6 and citizen in the early morning of Once Upon A Time. It is perfectly evident that the citizen is afraid for anyone to enquire about him. Afraid to give even his own number away to others, and in this case, No.6. Afraid to give anything away, to say the wrong thing, that someone might be listening and over hear what he is saying.

   This is much the same as it was in Napoleon Bonaparte's France. His was a France with a police state, with a vast network of secret police and spies. A police state where 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 as well as in Bonaparte's time.

   In the Prisoner episode A Change of Mind there are such citizens who are quick to denounce others who speak and act not in keeping with the rules of society. In the village, citizens are denounced as being Unmutuals. And so the likes of No.'s 93 and 6, in due course of events, have to sooner rather than later face the Committee! Those who do not change their ways, or have a change of mind about their attitudes, do not face Madame Guillotine, but the process known as Instant Social Conversion.

   So really there is a marked resemblance between the village, Bonaparte's France and his view of a united Europe, together with No.2 dream of an International community. A blueprint for world order!

Bonjour Chez Vous