Реферат: Panopticon The Ideal Social Order Essay Research

can 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 panopticism

behind them. The world is full of intricate and complicated people. These

people group together to create tribes, governments, countries, and or

civilizations. What are the rules? How are we, the most complicated form of

life that we know of, suppose to act towards one another. The panoptic system

has implemented itself upon the world. It has created a system where no one

force can overcome the next without any serious implications. If our country

had one person in complete control we would be in grave danger. What if this

individual decided he didn’t like people with blonde hair. If one was granted

enough power he could round up all of those with blonde hair and execute them.

The panopticon prevents this. It forms a intricate network of the distribution

of power so that one never feels that he can act without repercussions. This

form of control goes so far as to question, how do we know that we are not being

watched by other forms of life? Right now, as I write this paper there might be

some other form of life monitoring my every action. Not to mention that our own

government can follow us with the invention of satellites. This is why the

system is ingrained so deeply within its’ society. No matter what level of

society one is on he doesn’t know if he is being watched.

The police force in our government is a prime example of panopticism in

our society. The police enforce discipline and they are given enough power to

protect us from the ills of society. Yet they are not given too much so that

they can control us. If an officer decides that he does not like an individual

he has just arrested, the officer does not have the right to impose his own

values upon the offender. He must act in accordance to a higher authority. If

he disobeys this authority he is subject to disciplinary actions. The beauty of

the system is that this officer never knows when he could get caught breaking

the rules. Even though this officer upholds justice, he himself is subject to