Friday, January 04, 2008
Be Seeing You!
I purchased the DVD set of The Prisoner. The Prisoner has many themes familiar to us today - constant surveillance, mind control, psychological torture, but it was written almost 40 years ago. It's overarching theme is the role of the individual in a dehumanizing, perverse society that treats people as numbers. It seems to have become a cult classic. I remember watching it almost 20 years ago, and the scary thing is that it's even more relevant today than then. As the US, Britain, China, Russia, and India grow, they will seek more and more to control their populations. Their solutions will likely be the same, from constant camera surveillance, to benign and active mind control, to some form of Identification Number given to every individual (REAL ID in the US). From Patrick McGoohan:
Number Two:
I think progress is the biggest enemy on earth, apart from oneself… I think we're gonna take good care of this planet shortly ... there's never been a weapon created yet on the face of the Earth that hadn't been used...
...We're run by the Pentagon, we're run by Madison Avenue, we're run by television, and as long as we accept those things and don't revolt we'll have to go along with the stream to the eventual avalanche... As long as we go out and buy stuff, we're at their mercy. We're at the mercy of the advertiser and of course there are certain things that we need, but a lot of the stuff that is bought is not needed...
...We all live in a little Village… Your village may be different from other people's villages but we are all prisoners."
Number Two:
What in fact has been created? An international community. A perfect blueprint for world order. When the sides facing each other suddenly realize that they're looking into a mirror, they'll see that this is the pattern for the future.
Labels: individuality, mind control, society
