Foucault, Michel. 1975. Discipline and Punish. Penguin Books Ltd.
In this section he begins to discuss the evolution of Discipline and how it begins with the availability of a malleable society and develops into a orderly and unified society all working towards the greater good because of constant indoctrination.
Individuals are first sorted through to distinguish what types of actions they should take on in order to benefit society the most. Then they are trained to take on specific roles through establishments like schools, churches, or boot camps. This training internalizes specific actions from the simple to the highly complex to the extent that they become second nature. Once these actions have become internalized so deeply society becomes what Foucault calls panoptic, or all seeing. Every action that an individual makes or chooses not to make is seen by someone else and it is that pressure that causes us to conform to actions that work toward the greater good.
It's my own feeling that these expected actions become so internalized that we don't even care that anyone is watching anymore, we just continue to do them because we feel that that's the only way there is to do things. For example, I wake up every morning and get dressed before I leave the house. I do not get dressed because I worry about the looks I would get if I didn't, I get dressed because that's what I've always done. It's difficult for me to even imagine what it would be like to leave the house naked. The panopticism has grown to such a level that we are the ones watching ourselves, so now there is truly no escape from the eye of society because it has been internalized.
No comments:
Post a Comment