"Fold, Spindle..."

[Mark A Mandel]

On Thu, 28 Feb 2002, Richard Gage wrote:

#       The impersonality of identification numbers became a staple
#of 1960s counterculture: Phil Ochs sang "You've given me a
#number and you've taken off my name."[37] The same feeling reached into
#popular culture: Prisoner Number 6 on the TV show The Prisoner
#repeated: "I am not a number; I am a person."

IIRC, that was "I am not a number, I am a free man!"

#        He summarized his stand against
#the "system" by saying, in the first episode: "I will not be
#pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered. My life is
#my own."[38]

_The Prisoner_ starred and was created by Patrick McGoohan. It had much
in common with an earlier show of his, _Secret Agent_, and could be seen
as a sequel to it. The theme song of the latter, "Secret Agent Man",
ended similarly to the Phil Ochs line:

        Secret agent man, secret agent man,
        They've given you a number
        And taken away your name.

Every episode of _The Prisoner_ started with a symbolic summary of the
premise shown behind the opening credits: A mechanical arm (!) takes a
file folder, its surface blank except for an attached photo of McGoohan,
from a drawer, moves along, and deposits it in a different drawer that
is labeled "RESIGNED".

-- Mark M.