To paraphrase Sly, who infamously never said ‘Don’t push me‘ in First Blood (he said ‘Don’t push it‘ in various ways)…
Don’t count me!
As a person in a generation that has so many numbers surrounding and defining us (NHS number, National Insurance number, bank account number, annual income amount, number of shares this and that bank …) I fear that those numbers begin to become me.
I feel I need to heed the warnings of those who came before…(here comes Tamkin again…)
The money. They make a killing by fantasy. Now, counting any number is always a sadistic activity. Like Hitting. In the bible, the Jews wouldn’t allow you to count them. They knew it was sadistic.
Dr Tamkin in ‘Seize the Day (Penguin Modern Classics)
‘ by Saul Bellow.
“You are Number Six.”
“I am not a number — I am a free man!”
The Prisoner
