Punishment is the authoritative imposition of something negative or unpleasant on a person in response to behaviour deemed wrong by an individual or group. Michel Foucault came up with two techniques of punishment that contradict each other: “Monarchial Punishment” which involves the repression of the populace through brutal, humiliating public displays, and “Disciplinary Punishment” which gives professionals power over a person or group. Disciplinary Punishment is what has been used in the new era. This technique of punishment leads to self-policing. Foucault focused on how discipline and power came into relation and how it was used in prisons. Foucault was also interested in decentralized power, a form of power that allows you to create more data and is constantly growing and creating new ideas, which he called Productive Power. I will focus more on Disciplinary Punishment and its relation to modern society while using power discipline and how we have become immune to disciplining ourselves subconsciously, and the connection between power, knowledge, and truth.
Foucault says that power is not something that you earn or gain but something that is exercised and is circulated through networks. “Every action and every historical event is seen by Foucault as an exercise in the exchange of power” (Gaventa, 2003). Discipline is a form of power that we experience every day whether it is positive or negative, but it aims to give us structure and guidance. Foucault makes reference to the Panopticon, a structured jail where observers can supervise the inmates all hours of the day without them knowing because of a one way mirror. This concept allowed guards to impose the idea and thought that someone might always be watching the inmates. This was discipline of the mind, which leads the inmates to self-discipline themselves. The Panopticon was a metaphor that allowed Foucault to explore the relationship between systems of social control, people in disciplinary situations, and the power-knowledge concept. People adjust to change that has become accepted as the norm in society; for example, today we learn to discipline ourselves to watch our every move that we make. Cameras are constantly watching what we do in stores, in the streets, and in institutions. Discipline creates a whole new form of individuality for people, which enables them to perform their duty within new forms of economic, political, and military organizations emerging in the modern age and continuing today.
Power makes us available to many different social institutions it is constantly producing new relationships. Like we discussed in class, the example of Facebook and Twitter is a very interesting way of demonstrating the effects of self-policing. Facebook and Twitter reinforce the need to express ourselves in compulsive ways. These social networks shape our everyday life; people need these communication tools to feel connected. Suddenly going outside and talking to people face to face has become scarce in our society because of these new forms of communication. But these networks have created a routine that requires people to be vigilant about their every move. We regulate what gets put on the internet for others to see because we have disciplined ourselves to realize that others may not think that some ideas, pictures, or thoughts we post are seen as ‘cool’. Foucault decentralizes power and argues that it does not operate through class but through mechanisms and strategies. These social networks are strategies that have been planned to bring people together creating an addiction to wanting to be connected.
Foucault thinks that the relationship between knowledge and power is not simply “Knowledge is power.” Foucault is fascinated with the production of truth and believes that all knowledge, once applied in the real world, has effects, and in that sense at least becomes true. Knowledge, once used to regulate the conduct of others entails constraint, regulation, and the disciplining of practice. Foucault argues that truth is linked in a ‘circular relation’ with systems of power which produce and sustain it, creating a regime of truth. This regime is not just ideological or super-structural; it is a “condition of the formation and development of capitalism” (Rider, 1999). He found truth to be something that was a part of a given power structure. Truth for Foucault is also something that shifts through various episteme throughout history.
Foucault believed in the shaping of docile bodies through the gaze of surveillance and normalizing judgment. Foucault thinks that nothing is more material, physical, and corporal than the exercise of power. Power should not be seen as power over something, but rather by how it constructs new modes of activity. Disciplinary punishment has shaped how we have become who we are. Power is not only repressive but productive, and productive power needs to be expressed more and more throughout the world to promote an equal social balance.
No comments:
Post a Comment