Panopticon Essay, Research Paper

Knowledge and power manus in manus, but whose manus is it?

Regardless from where a individual comes from, one is ever under changeless surveillance by person in society, which in return affects everyone & # 8217 ; s single actions and reactions. Foucault & # 8217 ; s Panopticism proves that our ideals we have gained from society do pull strings how we act and behave without recognizing it. Our society & # 8217 ; s societal factors and the cognition we possess as a society can command one & # 8217 ; s action if one comprehends how power can command other single & # 8217 ; s actions.

Foucault & # 8217 ; s Panopticism created a prison that could accomplish 100 % observation by one superintendent in a round edifice to derive the cognition of the captives and give the feeling of lower status and impotence. Foucault believed & # 8220 ; all that is needed, so, is to put a supervisor in a cardinal tower and close up in each cell a lunatic? they are so many coops, so many little theatres, in which each histrion is entirely, absolutely individualized and invariably seeable & # 8221 ; ( 319 ) . The topic is ne’er certain when and if they are being observed at all, go forthing their ideals to self regulate and unconsciously go their ain defenders. This surveillance objectifies the topics in the cells, categorizes them and creates new societal norms ensuing from fright of being caught moving out of line.

Foucault used the pestilence as a good illustration of how in mundane life the Panopticon & # 8217 ; s rules of power could come into consequence if the norms of society were taken off and one power monitored your every action. He believed that the Panopticon and the pestilence were two of the same and yet different. One was an evil natural catastrophe while the other broke people down unnaturally for the exclusive intent to derive power. However, both resulted in a cognition that controlled society and topics that conformed to the authorities & # 8217 ; s new power about immediately.

The Panopticon was non merely used as a signifier of penalty but besides served as & # 8220 ; a research lab ; it could be used to transport out experiments, to change behaviour, to develop or rectify persons & # 8221 ; ( 323 ) . The Panopticon could prove processs, and alter the behaviour of the inmates because it had no societal factors to impact the aberrant behaviours in the people held within. It tried out the most effectual signifiers of penalty and wages while learning different techniques in order to separate which 1 was the best. The Panopticon made honing the exercising of power possible.

Foucault provinces that & # 8220 ; Panopticon presents a cruel, clever coop & # 8221 ; ( 325 ) , intending that although the scene may look inhuman, it is a work of intelligence at the clip and for old ages to come. Nevertheless, Foucault recognized that the & # 8220 ; panoptic mechanism is non merely a flexible joint, a point of exchange between a mechanism of power and a map ; it & # 8217 ; s a manner of doing power dealingss map, and doing a map map through these power relations. & # 8221 ; ( 326 ) . Many will see Foucault & # 8217 ; s Panopticism experiment as cruel and unneeded, however the inmates in the Panopticon act as topics of experiments to prove more sufficient ways of labour, medical specialty, and ways of instruction that are assisting our hereafter by making cognition of a normlessness universe and the power that could happen how to wholly eliminate aberrance and discourage the societal factors that influence these behaviours.

Today, in our society, most people take societal factors that influence our actions for granted. Foucault believes that each adult male is a merchandise of his society, and without society, there is no individual. This means the cognition that we possess as a society indirectly and without our acknowledgment controls our actions and alters our cognition. Harmonizing to the sociologist, Sutherland, his theory of Differential Association states that non all people will see the same personal and societal conditions because condemnable behaviour is learned through interactions with others chiefly in confidant groups. Any individual has the possibility to go more delinquent when there is an surplus of definitions favourable for the pervert to interrupt the jurisprudence. When a individual is in complete so

litude and changeless surveillance in the Panopticon, there is no opportunity to larn aberrant behaviour and changeless surveillance that would discourage condemnable Acts of the Apostless because of higher hazards of being caught.

Today, for illustration, when striplings are in high school they are less likely to jump category when they know that the rebuke will be unjust and have a higher hazard of being punished when caught. There were ever instructors skulking around corners, look intoing out public toilets for hooliganism and smoke, and glancing into schoolrooms to do certain that we were all acting suitably and the bulk of the pupils will conform to norms so they will non acquire into problem. Foucault said in his essay that, & # 8220 ; power has its rule non so much in a individual as in a certain conjunct distribution of organic structures, surfaces, visible radiations, regards ; in an agreement whose internal mechanisms produce the relation in which persons are caught up. & # 8221 ; In other words, Foucault in stating that power is more internal, where people are interested and attracted to the other factors that cause power. It is non the individual who is particular and selected to hold the power, alternatively it is the factors in society that affect the other topics to believing this individual has the power.

Why should we hold the cognition and power in the first topographic point to discourage condemnable Acts of the Apostless, though? Is the ground that the authorities forces Torahs and penalties on us because they are afraid knowing citizens are a menace to their control of society? If it is the cognition we possess as a society that controls our single actions, so it is apprehensible why the authorities would desire to hold its citizens conform to all of its demands. If no 1 is afraid of the & # 8220 ; penalty suiting the offense, & # 8221 ; so would we all commit offenses and run around like headless poulet in a province of anomy? Or would we hold the ethical motives that result from the societal factors created by our society and the authorities deter us from perpetrating the offenses and do us conform to the societal norms?

When you think about it, we are all inmates of some kind in the existent universe. Our authorities today is the following Panopticon through the nose count, revenue enhancements, the cyberspace, and concealed cameras because it can supervise all of our actions without our cognition and power. So, is being watched a good thing? Or is it a misdemeanor of our rights? Or are our rights what are go againsting us? Censorship in any type of media such as telecasting, newspapers, and the cyberspace, is a limitation of our freedom of address. Each amendment in the Bill of Rights blindly has some manner for the authorities to look over and modulate us and make societal norms that we must conform to. The right to bear weaponries can be restricted if you have already committed a offense, which means the authorities knows about about everyone when and how many armed arms person may have. Or the 4th Amendment which states, & # 8220 ; The right of the people to be secure in their individuals, houses, documents, and effects, against unreasonable hunts and ictuss, shall non be violated? What is so considered an & # 8220 ; unreasonable & # 8221 ; hunt and ictus and likely cause? That is left for the authorities to calculate out harmonizing the their ethical motives and cognition of power to discourage people and do them conform to its criterions. It seems as if there is an exclusion to every regulation that the authorities has, and yet, the authorities is the lone 1 that can acquire off with happening and interrupting the exclusions to every regulation because of the cognition and power it possesses.

We have learned through sociological experiments and research that worlds are easy manipulated and can conform unconsciously. Yet, how does this assist the citizens without power? Or is this the whole portion of our being, the cognition to derive power to pull strings those who conform easy? Do we truly necessitate to cognize this much about worlds because shortly we will hold dissected ourselves so much to a point where nil else is left to larn?

The Panopticon was a work of intelligence for sociologist of its clip and today, I believe if it was non invented so that some cognition and power greedy individual would hold invented it subsequently in clip.