READING #1 Panopticism

After reading the first few pages of Michel Foucault’s Discipline & Punish, Panopticism, it brought to attention how architecture and past ideologies can be damaging without realizing it. The book began by describing how a plague was treated amongst people- if one was to not follow quarantine properly, it meant death for them. Whereas today we do not see that occur, we are much less heavy minded on this pandemic because others are allowed to have different points of views and act differently, because it is their “right”. Nowadays anyone will find reasons to question orders, wherein the era of this book, no freedom was permitted. It is surprising to see that although ideologies were heavily enforced on society, science was not at its highest level. For example, they used perfume to sanitize things, were compared to today, perfume is not used and disinfecting wipes are used instead- technology has improved for the better. At times, it would be ideal, even to say a Utopian world, if the past and present ideologies occurred simultaneously. We may know how to sanitize better now, but the idea of freedom is getting out of hand and is affecting the timing of the virus to disappear. Fear and discipline would have to do a lot with how successful a plague was treated back then. With science improved today and curious minds, it is hard to see success. 

The book moves on to talking about a prison design called the Panopticon, which was designed by Jeremy Bentham. A tower is placed at the center of a circular prison structure, windows are wide and the person at the tower can see every prison cell that is designed with wide windows. This already shows the invasion of privacy and creates discomfort to a regular person. But there were a few positive aspects listed from this design: because inmates were trapped inside their own prison cell, that meant that there would be no dispute or overcrowding, the count was made easier under supervision, and no one would have a success rate in escaping. But overall, the idea is far too inhumane. Although the inmates are inside of a prison cell for different reasons, they are still human. This idea completely vanishes the way a typical person should be treated. Prison is a place to pay time, but also to change a person for the better. This idea may psychologically damage an individual. It is written in the book that this idea is effective  “to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic function of power”. Where I believe it removes one's state of consciousness. 

The book then moves on talking solely about discipline. It is heavily enforced on the prisoners. It is mentioned that police practice discipline, but I would have to disagree in comparison to most of today's police. If discipline were to be enforced today, it would most likely fail.