Panopticon: The Ideal Social Order :: essays research papers

Panopticon The Ideal Social Order     "The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may dealto put it to, produces homogenous effects of causation." Panopticism is a style ofcontrolling the man-to-man and making him conform to the transcription. That systemcould refer to the police or the world as a whole. There is never a definitetop position, therefore, everyone feels as if they argon being monitored bysomeone else. It is for this reason that this disciplinary mechanism is soeffective.     The Panopticon serves as a tool for discipline and a laboratory of power.The capabilities of a Panopticon are endless. It is the basis for thegovernment while it could also aid in the vile activities for the mafia. Inthe government there is a system of checks and balances where nothing can getaccomplished without the authorization of a higher ranked official. Once theseideas are passed they are then imposed on the individuals of society by otherorganizations . Whether it be the police, the IRA, or a neighborhood watchgroup. The Panopticon can serve the open in many ways. It can defend acountry, reform prisoners, treat the ill, and educate the public. It doesthis by creating channels of power and distributing them to the individuals. Inthe Panopticon, no one individual shall be granted too much power so as toplace his or her own value upon the masses. The concept behind panopticism isthe statistical distribution of power in order to better society as a whole. The historicalproblems with power have proven, when it is unevenly distributed, those withthe power take advantage and impose their values on the public. For instance,Hitler was given too much power and he massacred millions of innocent people.The Panopticon, on the other hand, serves to increase the wealth, welfare,education, and spirituality of society. The Panopticon does punish but it doesso in a means of reform. It attempts to restore the indiv idual to a being thatcan be a productive and positive influence. The system has two main purposes,the distribution of power and the means of establishing discipline.     Every aspect of the world has the ideas and principles of panopticismbehind them. The world is full of intricate and complicated people. Thesepeople group together to create tribes, governments, countries, and orcivilizations. What are the rules? How are we, the most complicated form oflife that we know of, suppose to act towards one another. The panoptic systemhas implemented itself upon the world. It has created a system where no one