Panopticon

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are being watched. The tower windows are all one-way mirrors allowing the gunman to see everyone but for no one to see where he is pointing his gun. Out of fear the prisoners watch themselves, assuming they are the ones in the cross hairs. The question is, do you need a guard at all? Look around at all the dummy cameras that look just like the real thing. They record nothing at all, and yet they symbolize the same thing as the real ones. Is this not a modern day Panopticon?
Michel Foucault, French philosopher, sees the Panopticon as a "Disciplinary Society." The prisoners in this construct are in constant fear of the eye of the law. The longer a prisoner lives in this fear, the more he is likely to carry it with him on the outside world. Since we know of the possibility of being watched, we obey whatever laws are active at the time. This also creates fear in us so we will not speak out on any of the laws that we see unjust.
Fear is what is manufactured in the Panopticon. ...

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in line? After all, isn't it the Christian that goes to church and prays in fear that he or she might go to hell? What about the driver that stops at a stop sign when there is clearly no one around? There is also the person that is always worried if they locked their front door or not. It is fear that drives these individuals? If you pray and go to church you will get to heaven. If you stop at the stop sign there is no way of getting a ticket. If you lock the front door no one can ever get into your home and harm your family. But, if the subject is a surveillance camera then how do we perceive it?
In the novel 1984, George Orwell (fig. 2.) imagined a world where the government could ...

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