Panopticon essays

Panopticon essays 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 creates new social norms resulting from fear of being caught acting out of line. Foucault used the plague as a good example of how in everyday life the Panopticon's principles of power could come into effect if the norms of society were taken away and one power monitored your every action. He believed that the Panopticon and the plague were two of the same and yet different. One was an evil natural disaster while the other broke people down artificially for the sole purpose to gain power. Nevertheless, both resulted in a knowledge that controlled society and subjects that conformed to the government's new power almost instantly. The Panopticon was not only used as a form of punishment but also served as "a laborato...