Panopticon: The Ideal Social Order

Panopticon: The Ideal Social Order

"The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish

to put it to, produces homogenous effects of power." Panopticism is a style of

controlling the individual and making him conform to the system. That system

could refer to the police or the world as a whole. There is never a definite

top position, therefore, everyone feels as if they are being monitored by

someone else. It is for this reason that this disciplinary mechanism is so

effective.

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 the

government while it could also aid in the criminal activities for the mafia. In

the government there is a system of checks and balances where nothing can get

accomplished without the authorization of a higher ranked official. Once these

ideas are passed they are then imposed on the individuals of society by other

organizations . Whether it be the police, the IRA, or a neighborhood watch

group. The Panopticon can serve the public in many ways. It can defend a

country, reform prisoners, treat the ill, and educate the public. It does

this by creating channels of power and distributing them to the individuals. In

the Panopticon, no one individual shall be granted too much power so as to

place his or her own values upon the masses. The concept behind panopticism is

the distribution of power in order to better society as a whole. The historical

problems with power have proven, when it is unevenly distributed, those with

the 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 does

so in a means of reform. It attempts to restore the individual to a being that

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