Foucault's "Discipline and Punishment"

This past week we discussed Michel Foucault’s “Discipline and Punishment.” One particular example was the idea of “panoptic discipline.” Panoptic discipline is when you have one person, “the eye,” who sees all and knows all, but the people the eye sees cannot see that the eye is there because it is visible and unverifiable. It’s like they don’t know they are being watched. I didn’t realize it until the actual concept was brought up in class, but there are many examples of panoptic discipline around us in our everyday lives.

The government itself implies panoptic discipline. We are always told that the government can see us, and they know what we’re doing. They have all this power because they set the rules, and we’re expected to follow them to keep society in order. But, do we really know that they’re watching us? We follow the government’s rules because that’s what we’re supposed to do and it’s what we think is right. No one is standing over us 24/7 to babysit our actions. What if we completely went against the rules and acted like the government had no power over us to punish us for our wrong actions? I’m pretty sure there would be chaos, and our economies and societies would be in shambles. Therefore, I kinda like the idea of panoptic discipline especially when it pertains to the government. I believe it’s part of why our cities and homes are in the conditions they are in now. Without people thinking the government is watching them, they would do much worse.