The cultural turn in intelligence studies

[Steve Kinney]

On 8/21/19 11:56 PM, Razer wrote:

[...]

> You'll note the one recurring theme throughout the whole series. There was NO ONE #6 could trust. Ever. On reading Steve's details I've seen slightly different show creation narratives but one thing I know... McGoohan was DRIVEN to do this. He was willing to fund it out of his own pocket if necessary. Whatever that 'argument with the chief' was about in the last episode (all you hear is thunder) was in some way, irl, connected to his drive to get the prisoner on the air.

During production of the Danger Man series, McGoohan demanded and got a
lot of creative control.  Drake's failure to adhere to prevailing
stereotypes was largely McGoohan's doing, as was the general trend
toward realism in Danger Man scripts, relative to other popular spy
fiction.

McGoohan avoided personal publicity and his private life was anything
but an open book; but what he did say when he spoke as himself indicated
anarchist or at least libertarian leanings. As a consummate professional
McGoohan no doubt did his homework, learning as much as he could about
how real intelligence services do their business.  He obviously did not
like what he saw.

I view The Prisoner in part as a report on what MeGoohan learned about
the spy business and its role in society, and in part as anti-recruiting
propaganda targeting that industry.  My take-away from The Prisoner?
Cooperate with any intelligence service and:

1)  You will not know who your real employers are.

2)  You will not know your employers real intentions.

3)  Your contributions will always and only do harm.

4)  They will dispose of you when your usefulness to them ends.

The above may not apply so much to people from the "best families" who
serve managerial roles (back during WWII the initials 'OSS' were
sometimes said to stand for 'Oh So Social'), but rank and file
intelligence officers and agents (i.e. intelligence professionals and
witting or witless dupes under their direction) present as cheap,
expendable supply items.

Why did the closing credits of Fallout, the last Prisoner episode,
indicate that Number Six was played by The Prisoner?  Maybe just that
the series was a difficult and demanding project, and McGoohan felt like
celebrating getting it done and over with.

:o)





-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 490 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
URL: <https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/attachments/20190822/078c0c9b/attachment.sig>