Petite Etoile, Foucault

I think this concept of ‘divide and subdue’ that is seen in the way the Plague was handled is still used in our society today. It is of course a much more subtle and ‘natural’ approach, but then again we are told to fight against what we are told is the norm and to deconstruct what we have been conditioned to see as natural. I see this method of subduing in our country today in the way that everyone is divided into categories. All of our jobs are very separate, so it is easy to keep people apart and to keep them living in the hegemony. Most people go to their jobs every day, usually one they don’t like, get paid a salary that is not enough, pay taxes, pay fees, are constantly paying off debts, and go to the same grocery stores and pay prices which they do not dispute. They obey the laws, like speeding and wearing clothing and not hitting people, and for the most part live very cookie-cutter lives in which the government controls them at almost every turn, whether they realize it or not. They know that there are people out there with millions and millions of dollars who do absolutely nothing and thrive off of their hard work through corruption, but continue to grind through their daily routine anyway. And I think this submissiveness is due in part to the fact that we are all compartmentalized. Everyone goes to different jobs in different buildings, most sit in a solitary cubicle all day ( a direct representation of the houses during the plague) of which they are only allowed to leave at a certain time and for a certain reason on penalty of losing money, which because of the paycheck to paycheck life they are kept at is almost the equivalence of death in our society. They are checked on by bosses, who are kept in check by even higher bosses, and so on and so forth. Each level having more freedom and more wealth and less and less work they have to actually do. I think if the guy who works from 8 to 5 in a tiny cubicle and is stressed to pay bills and to not get fired and to get all his work done, was sitting right next to the guy who had millions and sat around by a pool drinking martinis or playing golf or whatever his hobby may be, that 8 ton 5 guy would not be so submissive. He would get even angrier and realize the unfairness and maybe even stand up and say something. And lets say we removed all the walls and barriers and different kinds of jobs and just had all of the hard workers working hard right next to each other. And lets say that right across the street they could see all of the moochers lazing around doing nothing and profiting off of their hard work. Why I think not only would they get mad, and not only would they say something, but they would get together and organize and we might even have a revolution! This categorizing and dividing of people also goes further than the career field and into people’s homes. Everyone knows that neighborhoods are divided by financial status. There are certain neighborhoods you don’t go in ‘unless you want to get shot’. And then there are the ritzy neighborhoods with mansions and personal gates. And the middle class gated communities. I bet if all the hardworkers, who could barely even afford the house they are in, lived right next door to the mansions, and could see that their hard work was paying for their luxury, they wouldn’t stand for it then either. And lets push our imaginations a little further. What if those middle class and high class houses were mixed in with the cardboard shacks and mud huts of those dying of starvation in third world countries? I would like to think, that as the family made dinner and saw the hungry eyes of little children, maybe they would shared the abundance that they have, that we have here in America. And maybe, if we all were not so compartmentalized and categorized and kept apart from each other, we would see first hand each other’s struggles and better understand each other’s differences. And maybe then we would be more willing to help one another.