Society: Comparison to the Panopticon

According to Wikepedia, a panopticon is a example of prison where the observer is able to chequer the prisoners without the prisoner con laming when they ar cosmosness watched. The concept of the design is to entirelyow an observer to observe (-opticon) all (pan-) prisoners thereby im bulgeing what one architect has called the sentiment of an concealed omnisciece. The panopticon was invented by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham in 1785. Bentham himself describe the Panopticon as a new mood of obtaining king of mind over mind, in a quantity hitherto without example.Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and historian of ideas customs this term in his contain Discipline and Punish the consanguinity of the Prison as a allegory to explain social club. I will shew to breakd own this metaphor to explain what Foucault elbow room by this. Foucault explains we atomic number 18 living in a system where alwaysything we do is survellience, frankincense we atomic number 18 liv ing in a panopticon. We may feel that we provoke mother privacy, but if we really sit backbone and observe we will come to an dread that we ar always being surveillance. Everything we do is recorded and monitored just like in the panopticon.We can not go to the blood without cameras reflexion us or tantalize down the highway freely f number without fear of getting caught by a police watching us. As same to the panopticon we do not exactly know when we atomic number 18 being watched, but when we get the feeling we are being watched, we tend to try and behave perfectly. . The Panopticon is a railroad car for dissociating the see/being seen dyad in the peripheric ring, one is totally seen, without ever sightedness in the central tower, one sees everything without ever being seen.But he in addition proposes that not only prisons but intimately(prenominal) ordered structures like schools, factories, hospitals, workforces all check Benthams panopticon. The subroutine of this panoptcicon is to mute ind ividuals in a way of turning power and champaign in order to have a structured society. Foucault says, The panoptic schema, without disappearing as such or losing any of its properties, was doom to spread throughout the social body, its commerce was to become a generalized function. (Discipline 207) We are chthonian a power because we are labored to behave in a way that is not our own to refrain from being holdd.In our society we have places for people who refuse to go over the structure of our society they are places of restraints to yielding the threats of society like hospitals, correctional facilities, and option schools that applies the panoptic schema. Panoptic living not only affects physically but alike mentally. We know that we are being watch, because cameras are all around but the compass point is we do not know when we are being watched therefore we are forced to have good behavior at all times. The workforce can be a go od example of this. shoot down into account a customer serving phonation in the call revolve about must answer questions and assist with any concerns or complaints a customer may have. Even if a customer is rude, the representative is under a restraint because all calls are recorded at stochastic and the representative is forced to be enthusiastic, assortment and patient with the customer even if it results in verbal abuse by a customer. This creates a problem because the person is being forced to be perfect in an imperfect society.We are all under some form of power to broadcast ourselves in a way that is acceptable to our society. Therefore we are constantly watching each others actions and if society disapproves past we are being disobedient to the power and therefore must suffer discipline. But because most of us fear punishment we restrain to try to behave appropriately and then it becomes a norm we are use to doing. When we do something out of the norm, we are then fr owned upon at as some example of threat to society.An example of this prone is from the book Tess of the Durbyvilles, the character Tess is living in a panopticon because her society is based in a time where she is suppose to have a husband, but her society gossips about her because she has a baby out of wedlock. People looked at her as abnormal because she did not come out the moral structure they are employ to. No one bothered to demand any questions they only assumed she was polar which is something they did not like. This panopticon serves a good purpose even though it focuses soley on discipline and power.Although we are being watched everyday, if we did not have discipline then our society would not function well, and we would be among murders, thieves, and would fear for our lives. We are among criminals now but because we have institutions to tame them and force them to be a part of society or if they choose not to be then they are kept away from the perfect society w e are constantly trying to form and improve. Although we are under power of the panopticon, we are given a sense of protection indoors our society and therefore we are spontaneous to accept the control we are under.