JLO63O, 4/16

“Inspection functions ceaselessly” (94). – Foucault.

This was the premises of today’s class. No matter whom we are, what we do, and where we go, we are being watched; and this notion of surveillance happens on both Repressive and Ideological State Apparatuses. We took the use of security cameras as an example of RSA. Security cameras are repressive in its nature because we can see the functions of power at work. We know that behind that camera, there is a person watching you, and that person has the ability to assert power over you in the chance you choose to violate any assigned codes of conduct. We used the example of choosing a major at Rollins as a product of ISA. College, an ideological state institution, (further) divides students by having them choose a major. By picking a major, students become subjects of that chosen field by the content of the courses that are required to fulfill before graduation. The function of an institution is to brand you. We are in a constant process of dividing and branding.

The more we talk about binary divisions, the more I have been aware of its works at place. I read a Malcolm Gladwell book this past spring break called Outliers. In his book, Gladwell looks at people and events which have been exceptionally successful, and commonalities linked to the success. His opening example was his research on professional hockey teams in Canada. He studied the rosters and noticed that a majority of the players were born in January, February and March. Why he wondered? It starts at an early age. When kids approach middle school in Canada, hockey teams start dividing into divisions. At this age, young boys are beginning to develop physically, so when tryouts are being held in January, the boys who have January, February and March birthdays have up to 12 months more of development than those who are born in September, October, November. Derrida would say that binary oppositions begin here. The better coaches and equipment go to the favored teams, and conversely the time and qualities being put into the worse ones are declining. Once this separation occurs, it is almost impossible to make your way from being a sub division team to the elite ones, because the skills being taught, the teams that are played against, and the players on the team are none to compare to the top divisions. Here, we see, the separation gap starts to widen.

Little league teams are the Panopticon for the professional league. They oversee entire generations of young athletes, and they label and separate the talented from the untalented. Hockey divisions may be “visible and unverifiable,” but its works are, what Foucault would consider, part of the mechanism.