Power and Discipline Depicted in Panopticism - Essay Example

Panopticism Power and discipline has really been depicted in “Panopticism”. Measures taken to control the plague have been categorically displayed in the book. Quarantine and separation were some of the control used during that particular time and Foucault describes “Panopticon’ as a tower with that had vision to almost every cell that was meant for all prisoners. Panopticon made discipline more economical and efficient compared to other forms of discipline and further represented power and control due to minimal human operations associated with it. No prisoner would realize that they were being watched from the tower (Foucault 195-200). The panopticon could be operated by anybody and would be used in very many places apart from prison cells. Key words; power, discipline, panopticon, disciplinary It is undeniable that the world would be a better claim when power and discipline is applied in effective gaining of control; this is because panopticon is used to represent discipline and power and further transformation of disciplinary techniques. Concept of panopticism is very evident in the current society where there is devolvement of power and administration services. For instance, a strict spatial partitioning and dividing the town into distinct quarters and every quarter governed by an intendant was the order of the day. Every street was put under control of a syndic who would keep it under strict surveillance in such a way that if he left the city he would be convicted to death. Everyone was ordered to stay within and the syndic would lock all the doors from outside before handing over keys to the intendant because no one was allowed to leave on death pain. Just like the panopticim, there are several divisions of administration put in place to reach the citizens at the grassroots level. A federal government for example, has some of its powers transferred to the states and even further in smaller divisions. There is one central power with several branches that everyone looks up to. Idea of plague has been used as a base of creating discipline just like other criminal acts such as terrorism in the current society. Disciplinary mechanism was introduced by the fear of the plague and this act as the origin of all the modern punishment. Visibility from the Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon tower is used as a trap. It was possible to see every individual including a schoolboy or prisoner being incarcerated but the victims could not communicate with each other. Terrorism is considered as one of the major crimes in the current society and the government has therefore created some divisions such as Afghanistan as some of the hot spots. Sentences related to terrorism are very severe thus causing fear amongst the public. Communication sector is being manipulated just to ensure minimal terror by scrutinizing any form of communication or money transfers. Just like in panopticism, the crowd was put away from this and the tower brought a sense of visibility that represented a functioning authority. Power is believed to be visible though unverifiable as a prisoner would always see the tower but remains ignorant about where is watched or observed. Panopticism concept can be compared with the current Intelligence and correctional facilities used in testing behaviors and capturing criminals. Panopticon is grounded on the royal zoo at Versailles as it allows to do the work of naturalist and also acts as a laboratory of power. It is laboratory of power because it provides a base in which prisoners and staffs are tested. It is also apparent that the plague afflicted town and the tower depicts change of disciplinary program. FBI has the responsibility of putting suspects on the radar and testing their behaviors or monitoring their behaviors before capturing them. this is a common activity carried out particularly while pursuing terrorists. Panopticism symbolizes the wider police force employed at various stations across the country to maintain law and order in the modern world.The tower further represents a diagram of power decreased to its perfect arrangement and enhances the effectiveness of power by increasing the population that can be controlled by it as well as minimizing its operators. The panopticon depicts architectural representation of authority as it is exercised in people’s minds. There is tendency of mobilizing authority against an unusual evil in the initial instance and a widespread operational of human model which symbolizes power dealings in daily life. Panopticon shows the spread of power throughout the community and amongst a large number of people in a wider geographical coverage. This is a representation of economical and efficient power through its ability to boost the economy, extent education and ensure proper public morality in the society. It also indicates how power can be devolved through subordination of groups with a unitary overall authority. Various disciplinary mechanisms can be spread in the society thus ensuring smooth and effective power operations. There are some weighty processes that are also introduced which include functional inversion of disciplines and swarming of disciplinary mechanisms which spread in the society. There are correctional facilities installed everywhere across the country to discipline law breakers. There is no doubt that the panopticon symbolizes the operations of discipline and punishment in the modern world. There is a clear representation of the procedures of observation and examination thus revealing a lot regarding the operations of power. Use of panopticon is indeed interesting even though Foucault concentrates much on the text of the plague rather than the actual plague. There are higher authorities in the current society that are responsible for making and implementation of both discipline and punishment amongst people defying the law of the land. Introducing fines and other remedies to criminals tend to substantiate the kind of crime committed by the offenders. Foucault uses panopticon to clearly communicate his argument which concerns the theory of discipline. Foucault argues that “panopticon makes it easy to perform disciplinary actions” (214-200). The building provides the need for surveillance in order to protect the society by allowing the power to smoothly function thus qualifying it as a purposeful and perpetual structure. There is also a transformation of disciplinary techniques where discipline is based on observation and examination. The transformation is characterized by state controlling methods of force and runs it throughout the society and is further accompanied with enhancement of socio-economic factors such as increase in population (Foucault 199-214). Before making any decision regarding punishments of any kind to an offender in the current society, thorough analysis and examination must be carried out to prove the suspect guilty. With the ever advancement of societies, there is an incredible increase in opportunities for both control and observation. Increase in technology led to blend of disciplinary methods that revealed the infiltration of the scrutiny into inquisition. This marked the transformation of disciplinary technique from the 17th century to 18th century. Mutilation of the offender’s body was one of the extreme penalties during the ancient administration while in the modern world, penalty involves unspecified examination. This may be attributed to the current observational prison acting as the modern penal instrument. Works Cited Foucault, Michel. Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York: Vintage Books, 1995: 195-228. Print. Read More