Freedom For Oneself

    It has been suggested, in the past, that No.6 was a rebel. A rebel seeking power for himself "Obey me and be free!" were the words which boomed out across the village towards the end of No.6's so short term in office, as the new No.2, at the end of Free For All.

   No.6 was not rebelling here, he was using to tool of the village against itself. Attempting to bring down the machine from within. Nor did he want power for himself, as No.6 wanted freedom for the inhabitants of the village. Yet in that "Obey me and be free" No.6 himself sounded like a dictator, which again does no make him a rebel. It was a struggle for freedom, which in turn could make No.6 a "freedom fighter," and as we know one "freedom fighter" is another man's "terrorist!"

   The slogan is Free For All, and perhaps that is what No.6 had expected, a right Free For All as the good citizens of the community took to his idea of freedom and rebelled against the village. But of course no such rebellion ever happened, as the good citizens rejected No.6's idea of Free For All, not just freedom for himself you understand. He tried to make them "listen" to him, but listen they did not, and I'm not at all sure if they even heard No.6's words booming out across the village.

   For No.6 there was no Free For All as the "sheep" went about their daily business completely unaffected by the "goat" in their midst.

   Remember the one thing about a "true" rebel, and it is this. The "true" rebel can never settle for anything. Once rebels have substituted the one thing for another, "true" rebels then have to replace that thing which was the original replacement which they rebelled against in the first place. And so it must go on, and on, and on. The "true" rebel can never settle for anything. Otherwise rebels simply become conformists!

   I have read Prisoner based articles by those who are in love with being a rebel. But who at the end of the day would run a mile from any rebellion of any kind. Even when they see an injustice done within a society, they are even too afraid to stand up and speak out against such injustice, or against the way "their" society is being run!

   But in regards to the Prisoner, is freedom such an illusion, and does anyone have the right to force "their" idea of freedom upon us, as No.6 was forcing his on the good people of the village?

BcNu