In 1967 Patrick McGoohan chose to merge his experiences of spy fiction with fantasy and psycho-drama. The show was cut as a deal with Lew Grade for ITC, who was keen to retain McGoohan's talent. Apocryphally, McGoohan had some sketches of episodes but much of it was improvised as the production went ahead. A chance encounter with a weather balloon became 'Rover' an oddly surreal device that prevented Number 6 from escaping from The Village. Now if you're unkeen on meta-narrative or commentary please go elsewhere.
In 2009 'Rover' (the weather balloon) is the global village forseen by Marshall McLuhan. A network that contains everything including the individual. We are in that place. How does it compare to The Village (shot in Portmeirion) in the late Sixties? Firstly, and stating the obvious, many of us have become numbers. Our liberty has been transgressed by the needs of the state to know where we are and who we are in contact with. The technologies that liberate us, facilitate our control in equal measure. Indeed technological development is driven by requirements to carry out mass observation. The US and other governments have systems in place to identify patterns of behaviour and subversive elements. All behaviours of control are of course met by counter-measures seeking to occlude vision of the state. In The Village, Number 6's movements were under constant observation, the global village is the same. A common idea that has emerged among British Labour politicians is that if you have nothing to hide then you have nothing to fear. Up until recently the British population seemed blindly willing to accede to the desires of the 'Nanny' state to decide which toys one can play with and for how long. There appears to be no common political consensus to engage the electorate in a wider debate around the needs of the individual and those of the state. This is despite the fact that we now have the technological tools to stimulate broader inclusion and comment. One can imagine that through a process of education in digital inclusion (or subversion) eventually the state would have to listen. Sadly in line with McGoohan's portrait of The Village, the state chooses to up the game on technological surveillance. Black boxes recording every email via your ISP, assembly of dubious databases by the police and pattern recognition technologies in public spaces. It has not gone without note that the impact of small groups of terrorists has been to assemble a wave of fear in the community. People who take a stance on individual liberty are portrayed as out of touch fantasists. It is as if we should give in, accept our number and be grateful for the security that surrounds us.
The Global Village does not have to be a prison. Networked technologies reduce the role of the state and provide the potential to aggregate knowledge and meaningful comment to the masses. It is for this reason that the Chinese government is so keen to control data flow. They know that 'to google' represents a major problem to the state. For this reason Google itself conspired with the Chinese government to delimit its own technology.
Google has amassed a controlling influence over the Global Village. It can introduce ethical and judgmental criteria into the freedoms of those in the village. It has over-run the nation state and changed the way we do things, again facilitating our freedom and choice but within bounds. Could Google become a member of the G7 or sign up to NATO? It is not simply a corporation it is a world power. Google has the reach and influence to shape our lives and work with us on our choices. Who is Number 1?
If you like this Captain Beefheart record then you'll love the new album by…
Be Seeing You.
Tags: digital, game
