2 Categories of Control/ Panopticon

The two things that stood out to me this week were the 2 categories of control,and the panopticon. Even though the panopticon, in a way, is apart of the 2 categories of control, it still holds a different kind of meaning to me. So the first category of control was the discipline-blockade. In a discipline blockade we learned that there is a centralized power. So what that means is that there is someone, or a specific group of people that make all of the decisions for one whole economy. We also learned that it was a sovereign control which means that no one from outside gets to interfere. With sovereign control, the leader can decide to let someone live or to make them die. 

   The second category of control is discipline mechanism. That brings us to the panopticon example. Foucault viewed the panopticon as a symbol of the disciplinary society of surveillance. Within the panopticon, visibility is a trap. No one can see anything except for what is in their designated area. Each individual is seen but cannot communicate with each other, or the person who can see them. An example of what we learned that could possibly be a panopticism example is surveillance cameras. With surveillance cameras, we know that there is possibly someone watching us, but we can't see them. This panoptic discipline atomizes and disindividuates power. It also produces a homogeneous effect of power. Its effects are homogeneous because whether the building is used as a school or prison, power operates in a certain way within it. The prisoners can always see the tower, but they'll never know who is inside of the tower. In a way I feel like this could be a harsh punishment depending on what the prisoner has done. To have the feeling of someone watching you, but you don't know for sure, is really creepy. If the prisoner did something minor like stealing a donut from the corner store, then I don't think that this type of punishment is necessary.