Scorpio, Foucault

Foucault writes much like George Orwell. He is seemingly depressive with his insightful views, however leaves a reader gasping for security in the world described. He labels the world as a panopticon, which establishes that we are trapped or buried like the dead. Foucault states, “The panopticon mechanism arranges spatial unities that make it possible to see constantly and to recognize immediately”. In the Orwellian context, this theory is applied in the book 1984. Although personally, I wasn’t the most enthused reader of my ninth grade English class during this novel, I was intrigued by the notion of a world where, “Big Brother” was always watching.

Foucault also states that panoption can “induce the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power”. The characters of 1984 displayed this notion perfectly in their everyday lives, where nobody questioned the government or the ideology. Orwell himself believed the usage of surveillance could lead to this type of society where democracy ceases to stand up to public policy.

This type of shift toward society is seen everywhere. From traffic light cameras, GPS navigation systems, to cell-phone tracking, we see surveillance of ourselves in the world and think nothing of it. Ever GoogleMap-ed yourself? Foucault questions that we may have reached a point in time when viewing our house from space is deemed as normal, not “Big Brother”-like. I argue that while we use technology to advance our society, we might be limiting our privacy rights.