Dot, Foucault

While I found Foucault's essay to be very challenging to fully comprehend, I thought that it was very interesting, that is if I actually understood him correctly. I have always enjoyed history and think that many rituals of the past are incredibly fascinating. While reading Foucault's essay, I found his descriptions and interpretations of plague 'management' very captivating. He was able to paint a picture in my head of the happenings of the seventeenth century and I felt as though I got a very accurate account of the activity of the time. In reading the beginning of his essay, I almost forgot I was reading for CMC class and got caught up in the vivid descriptions as if it was a novel. 

When the story aspect ended and I was brought back to the world of CMC, I found his relations between the plague control and present day to be very interesting as well. During the plague, people where told how to behave by the ruling class, i.e the mayor, and where kept in line by his magistrates. The lower class citizens, whom Foucalt called the crows where the "the people of little substance who carry the sick, bury the dead clean and do many vile and abject office" (94). It is easy to see how this model has translated in to the hierarchical society that we live in today. Foucault goes on to point out some of these similarities later in his essay. It is also easy to recognize the hegemony held by the ruling classes in the seventeenth century and to see how the same type of entity is still in place today. 

I found it very fascinating to see such connections. Although I have always assumed that some form of hierarchy and hegemony have always existed, I really liked the connection Foucalt made. I hope in class to be able to understand more of his points and to hopefully make more interesting connections.