Foucault talks about surveillance in his piece. I have a feeling that in the years to come surveillance is going to become even stricter and people will be reluctant to act even moreso. Foucault says that “our society is one not of spectacle, but of surveillance”(101). Phones are tapped, security cameras film people doing any number of things, etc. Once Americans became aware of surveillance they had to either develop stealthier methods to get away with misconduct or they had to restrain altogether. This works a lot like the Repressive state apparatuses Althusser discusses in such depth. People begin to fear for the worst, that their cell phone calls to their drug dealer are being tapped by police officers or the government. The internet has become a huge concern when it comes to surveillance. Internet hackers can literally hack into somebody’s IP address and see exactly what they are viewing on their computer screen at all times. Surveillance is only going to get worse as the government cracks down and law enforcement starts utilizing it more.
Surveillance is one way to discipline people, however. When people are repressed from acting out they will not do devious things. This can be seen as a good thing or a bad thing. People will always find ways to work around surveillance, so is it really necessary to use it as a means of discipline? I think not.
*I need more time to finish this later, I will come back and add the rest in a comment.
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1 comment:
Even though you say you're gonna return to lengthen your blog, it's still gonna count as short since the full blog is due before the deadline. Otherwise you show a good start to your analysis of Foucault. I hope that class has helped your understanding so that you can come back and add to your starting thoughts. :)
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