Panopticon
Knowledge and power hand in hand, but whose hand is it?Regardless from where a person comes from, one is always under constant surveillance by someone in society, which in return affects everyone's individual actions and reactions. Foucault's Panopticism proves that our ideals we have gained from society do manipulate how we act and behave without realizing it. Our society's social factors and the knowledge we possess as a society can control one's action if one comprehends how power can control other individual's actions.Foucault's Panopticism created a prison that could achieve 100% observation by one overseer in a circular building to gain the knowledge of the prisoners and give the feeling of inferiority and powerlessness. Foucault believed "all that is needed, then, is to place a supervisor in a central tower and shut up in each cell a madman...they are so many cages, so many small theaters, in which each actor is alone, perfectly individualized and constantly visible" (319). The subject is never sure when and if they are being observed at all, leaving their ideals to self regulate and unconsciously become their own guardians. This surveillance objectifies the subjects in the cells, categorizes them and create
The Panopticon was not only used as a form of punishment but also served as "a laboratory; it could be used to carry out experiments, to alter behavior, to train or correct individuals" (323). It tried out the most effective forms of punishment and reward while teaching different techniques in order to distinguish which one was the best. One was an evil natural disaster while the other broke people down artificially for the sole purpose to gain power. The right to bear arms can be restricted if you have already committed a crime, which means the government knows about almost everyone when and how many armed weapons someone may own. Today, for example, when adolescents are in high school they are less likely to skip class when they know that the reprimand will be unfair and have a higher risk of being punished when caught. Nevertheless, Foucault recognized that the "panoptic mechanism is not simply a hinge, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power and a function; it's a way of making power relations function, and making a function function through these power relations. According to the sociologist, Sutherland, his theory of Differential Association states that not all people will experience the same personal and social conditions because criminal behavior is learned through interactions with others principally in intimate groups. It seems as if there is an exception to every rule that the government has, and yet, the government is the only one that can get away with finding and breaking the exceptions to every rule because of the knowledge and power it possesses. We have learned through sociological experiments and research that humans are easily manipulated and can conform unconsciously. " In other words, Foucault in saying that power is more internal, where people are interested and attracted to the other factors that cause power. It is not the person who is special and selected to have the power, instead it is the factors in society that affect the other subjects to believing this person has the power. Any person has the possibility to become more delinquent when there is an excess of definitions favorable for the deviant to break the law. Yet, how does this help the citizens without power? Or is this the whole part of our existence, the knowledge to gain power to manipulate those who conform easily? Do we really need to know this much about humans because soon we will have dissected ourselves so much to a point where nothing else is left to learn?The Panopticon was a work of intelligence for sociologist of its time and today, I believe if it was not invented then that some knowledge and power greedy person would have invented it later in time.
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