Freedom within a Panoptical Society Essay

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The principles “moderm” and “post-modern” have grown to be common currency in intellectual debates. Inside such debates, the postmodern is perceived as an epoch, a point of view, or an entirely new paradigm of believed. Such a conception from the aforementioned term stems from it is rootedness inside the conception of the modern. Chia notes that what distinguishes the postmodern from the modem is “a style of considering which eschews the uncritical use of prevalent terms including ‘organizations’, ‘individuals’, ‘environment’, ‘structure’, and ‘culture’, etc” (579). These terms refer to the presence of social choices and characteristics within a modernist conception of social fact.

The rationale behind this lies in the ontological conception to be which privileges thinking in terms of discrete extraordinary states, static attribute and sequential situations. As opposed to this kind of ontological getting pregnant of actuality, the postmodern stands since the winner of weakened forms of ontology that “emphasize a transitive, ephemeral and emergent reality” (Chia 579). If such is the circumstance, it thereby follows that the postmodernist point of view of actuality adheres to thought styles wherein the fact is deemed to be continuously in flux and transformation thus unrepresentable therefore impossible to situate in a static pregnancy of fact.

An adoption of a post-modernist perspective of reality therefore leads to a rethinking from the modern concepts of social reality since adherence to postmodernist views lead to the de-emphasis on forms and attributes. This sort of a getting pregnant of actuality however will emphasize the importance of regional methods, which usually collectively establish social fact. In a sense, the shift from a modern into a postmodern getting pregnant of reality thereby contributes to the re-definition of existing ontological ideas of truth that decide the various varieties of intellectual priorities as well as assumptive stipulations in the study and conception penalized.

Such a notion of fact [that is highly seen as the postmodern turn] is obvious in Michel Foucault’ views as to the workings of cultural reality. Michel Foucault’s utilization of Jeremy Bentham’s concept “panopticon’ in his book Discipline and Punish reveals a discussion with the aspect of security while putting emphasis on a fundamental change and break as a result of the changes inside the social and theatrical preparations during the 1800’s. The difference in methodology can be evident in the event one considers that rather than the old technique wherein the countless see the few, modern methodology has enabled the move wherein the few start to see the many.

Foucault notes that such a shift reveals the manner by which “the fast view of any great multitude” is procured for a small number of individuals or maybe for a single individual (216). He even more notes the fact that implications of such show the manner in which Our society can be one not of spectacle, but of surveillance…We are less Ancient greek language than we feel. We are not in the scene, nor around the stage, but also in the panoptical machine, spent by it is effects of power which we bring to themselves since our company is a part of its mechanism. (Foucault 217) This sort of a point of view is based on the assumption that society stands as the locus intended for the interplay of various varieties of power contact.

Such forms of power relationship determine the way in which a person situates himself/herself within his or her surroundings. Monitoring, in this perception, may be seen as a method which will society inscribes upon an individual as they chooses to regulate his/her activities dependent upon the proper execution of power relation by which he/she offers direct access. It is necessary to note, that Foucault’s idea of panopticonism also stresses the existence of liberty within a predefined space. Understanding power can be central to understanding Foucault’s analysis of subjectivity.

Foucault explicitly rejects the paradigm of power as repression, arguing that power is not just negative although also effective. He rejects the juridical model of electrical power, wherein power is characterized as repressive, rule-based, standard, and beyond reach. According to this model, the subject is constituted as one who also obeys this negative unilateral power. Foucault characterizes electricity as confident and fruitful. Power is everywhere, a multiplicity of force relations; it is always community and unstable.

This pervasiveness of electrical power does not preclude resistance. On the contrary, resistance(s) can easily exist inside the strategic discipline of electric power relations. Power is actions that works through and between things; power is first and most important relational.

Not only is electricity always a relationship, yet power interactions exist just about everywhere. Freedom, with this sense, will be understood because composed of great and unfavorable aspects. Even though one exists within panoptical society, it will be possible to engage in the case opf positive freedom through the involvement of actions, which contradicts the major discourses. In the popular feminist movements, for example , such an action involves the redefinition of the feminine as opposed to the presumed patriarchal conception from the female. This kind of is the manner in which Foucault’s viewpoint emphasizes the fluidity of structures irrespective of its living within a panoptical realm.

The way in which our current society is definitely controlled and determined by the panoptical gaze can also be seen in the various ways by which media affects the point of view held by an individual. Capitalism, through press and advertising commodifies ideals such as identity. By backlinks the false notion of individuality to a certain item, consumers think that they are exclusive, that they are distinct.

A further analysis nevertheless reveals that the aforementioned claim to individuality is definitely nothing but an illusion; a figment with the mind made and institutionalized by capitalists. It is not only the case that it can be manufactured and institutionalized; additionally it is sold to the consumers. This may lead to the deception of the public who feels that they have individuality while they fail to see that this individuality is definitely instilled and mass produced by market. The paradox through this is apparent if 1 considers that values including individuality are acquired by individuals throughout the consumption of products sold in industry. In this feeling, failure to take such products leads to a specific form of exemption within culture.

In order to ‘belong’, one thereby adheres for the fads. The necessity to be a great ‘individual’ [unique] is thereby ensured simply by society’s panoptical gaze. The way in which in which the marketplace prescribes and sells individuality [or any other benefit within society] was discussed by Susan Bordo in her essay “Beauty (Re) discovers the Male Body”. In the previously mentioned text, Bordo describes a certain type of “gaze” which guarantees the charge of the body. While Foucault claims, an examining gaze will ensure that each individual will physical exercise surveillance over himself.

The gaze, in the context of Bordo’s job is dedicated to the body. The way in which in which such a manner of self-surveillance is guaranteed is through the acculturation individuals himself. In manners of Discovering, John Patre discusses the ways in which the means of acculturation or the socialization method itself permits the individual to formulate a certain taste for the ‘beautiful’. Bergerot argues that society and culture prescribe and identify both the ordre and substantive taste of your individual.

Compared to Bordo, in whose focus is on the body, Berger focuses on the manner in which works of art are influenced by the ways f creation within a certain place. Accurate enough it is additionally dubious if an individual has the ability to of perceiving an object with no interest in any respect. We choose what we should want to perceive and if we state that there are instances wherein we are “captured” with a beautiful thing, it gains our focus only because it really is something which is very important to us.

In a place filled with persons for example , we all notice a unique person because that person offers value to us. The platter of fruits would not become satisfying to eye simply because it really is arranged in a certain way which allowed us to find out their proportion with each other and the brightness with their skins, we also find it beautiful mainly because somehow unconsciously we know that costly important target or in case it is a piece of art of a plate of fruits, it presents us with an image of objects which in turn give us nourishment. In this feeling it also seems that judgments of taste are partly dominated by explanation just like the classy.

Reason lets us know that there is an amount of relevance to these items. Works of art present us with ways of discovering reality. These ways happen to be affected, motivated, or shall we merely say influenced by the type of discourse which is prevalent in a specific contemporary society or even within a specific era. It is the importance of an object which allows us to subconsciously and even consciously associate beauty with these objects.

The likeness of Foucault, Bordo, and Berger’s operate may thereby be caused by the importance they give to culture in identifying the do it yourself as well as the constraints of this self. Within this kind of a placing, individual independence may be seen as being based mostly an individual’s capability to recognize the types of both great and unfavorable power. Basically, it is based on the individual’s capability to understand that within a contemporary society ruled with a panoptical eyes, it is not impossible to ascertain one’s autonomy by engaging in actions [or constituting a self] that goes against dominant the discourse. Functions Cited Patre, John. Techniques for Seeing.

New york city: Viking Press, 1973. Bordo, Susan. “Beauty (Re) understands the Male Body”. Chia, L. “From Modern to Postmodern Organizational Analysis”. Organizational Studies 16 (1995): 579-604.

Foucault, M. Discipline and Penalize The Birthday of the Prison. New York: Classic, 1974.

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