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September 17, 2007
Comments on "Discipline & Punish"
Having read just part three, and not Foucault's entire book, I found the flow of his writing jarring and difficult to follow. While Foucault constantly quotes Bentham, there is little other material to fortify his other broad reaching comments. While using the Panopticon as the vehicle of separation between the disciplines and the roots of surveillance society, we must remember it is hardly the sole catalyst of such changes. Prisons and the Panopticon existed before modern institutionalization, and the restructuring of the economy into larger and larger systems has been more spurred the gathering of power than anything else (in my opinion).
The principle of the unknown, faceless observer is still the same today, but with technology, the observer is no longer restricted to what is visible from a watching post. By installing cameras across the city we have created a web of data controlled centrally, but dispersed over any physical distance. Amusingly, after reading this article I came across Big Brother is watching us all on the BBC.
We must also remember that our society is more accepting of criticism to its institutions, and we have more freedom to live outside its defined boundaries, depending on privileges of our nationality. What I find more concerning is the increasing specialization required in disciplines to be considered knowledgeable, and then the sheer effort needed to contribute to that knowledge base. The amount of capital required to create a sustainable business or piece of work is continually increasing, feeding the development of ever larger institutions to continue our perceived forward technological momentum. I digress.
Except in cases where those being observed are somehow stigmatized, be prisoners, or the ill, many institutions allow the observed to enter the pinnacle from which they are being observed, fostering a sense of closeness void from the Panopticon. For example, in schools we are allowed to visit the main office, and the offices of its staff. The troubling exception to this is public surveillance, where multiple sources such as video cameras and internet routers are constantly pooling information. The methods for combing this information is often performed by a computer which has no sense of morality, privacy, or restriction programmed into its software. Ethics is something which has yet to filtrate into computer programming, which overtime will hopefully change.
Posted by Alexander at September 17, 2007 11:35 AM