“Panopticon” Michel Foucault’s: A Modern Prison Essay Example

people don’t often think it could be sending the wrong message or even providing false information. These stereotypes are sometimes seen as being a burden or disease to society. Many people feel that the world would just be a better place if the unmentionables of their towns would just disappear. These groups will be forced into one of a town or city, segregating the town into different quarters, just as Foucault speaks of.

Now that the plague stricken town and society have been segregated, they must be observed. Inspection functions ceaselessly. The gaze is alert everywhere”(210). In the plague stricken town, it was imperative that all actions and occurrences were recorded. Strict record keeping was the only way to make sure the disease didn’t spread.

Power and suppression, the panopticon, was used to protect the masses. People no longer it this way. The media now thinks it must give the people their right to know every detail of every news story. If that means invading someone’s home or privacy to get “the real story”, so be it.Will people act differently if they know that someone may be watching them.

Everyone has things they do in private that they wouldn’t want anyone to see. Always having the fear the you could be seen would stop you from doing what you had been. The media has become liberal with its regulations. “The practice of placing individuals under observation is a natural extension of a justice imbued with disciplinary methods and examination procedures”(236).

Video and audio surveillance has become much more prevalent in recent decades, so much so that some fear people are being watched too much.When is surveillance too much? Many

surveillance systems are in place to protect citizens from crime, but sometimes they can be used against innocent people. In today’s society, it is hard to argue either side of this argument. Such surveillance would not be possible, first without technology, but also without registration.

“The surveillance is based on a system of permanent registration…This document bears ‘the name, age, sex of everyone, not with standing his condition”(210). What us the use of watching someone if you have no information about them?People must register with so many different companies and organizations, it’s a wonder we can keep so much straight. One must register to drive, to vote, to get utilities, to make payments, to make purchases, to do virtually anything. Also to register, you must have your social security number, which has linked to it all of your vital information, just as the plague stricken town.

If all these companies have our information, it wouldn’t be difficult for the media to get a hold of something and use it against us. Power surveillance will always be prevalent in society, whether it is the government or the media. In each of its applications, it makes it possible to perfect the exercise of power. It does this in several ways: because it can reduce the number of those who exercise it, while increasing the number of those on whom it is exercised”(220).

No matter how strong the people become, it only makes the mechanism, the panopticon, stronger. This mechanism will never disappear from society because of its ingenious design and effectiveness. Only the people in society take responsibility for the panopticon of the media we find ourselves in today.