Panopticism and Surveillance

“Panopticism is the general principle of a new ‘political anatomy’ whose object and end are not the relations of sovereignty but the relations of discipline”

Michel Foucault (327)


This quote by Michel Foucault addresses the idea that traditional methods of sovereignty have changed form over time shaping a new ‘political anatomy’ based on disciplinary mechanisms. In his essay, Foucault describes that this new form of dominant sovereignty no longer requires the use of force to divide and conquer but rather the use of surveillance. Foucault describes the birth of this new ‘political anatomy’ as a product of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon. Bentham’s Panopticon was an annular prison that utilized isolation and visibility to control inmate’s behavior. Inmates were separated and individually placed in a fully lit cell with only a large tower observation tower to look at. The tower was built in such a way that guards could observe its prisoners but the prisoners could not observe the guards. This created a fear of the unknown among the isolated inmates, they didn’t know when they were or were not being observed. “He is seen, but he does not see; he is the object of information, never a subject of communication” (320). This quote by Foucault outlines the basic ideas of the Bentham Panopticon. Foucault argues in his essay that this same panoptic design has been implemented in modern society. Although the Bentham Panopticon may seem to be less barbaric prison in comparison to traditional standards it is, in all reality, just as barbaric because instead of manipulating force to control it’s manipulating the mind and sole. Bentham’s prison has set the foundation for the modern ‘anatomy of politics’. It seems today that we are no longer barbarically overruled by a dominant supremacy yet this outwardly ‘less barbaric’ new form of modern sovereignty is, as Foucault hints, the same barbaric form of supreme dominance just in different form.

Foucault talks about a plague-stricken town that is quarantined and subdivided into small manageable sections. The people of the town are contained by authorities and are stripped of their ability to go outside their house. They are isolated from the rest of the town, they come to the window of their house only when the authorities call for them. The people of the town have no visibility they only see what the authorities want them to see of the outside world. This is ruling by means of power. Today it may seem that this method of sovereignty is long gone but according to Foucault we are still being ruled in the same way just by different means. We may think that we have visibly in the modern day and age but we are really only seeing what authority wants us to see. “Visibility is a trap” (321). Foucault is referring to how visibility gives off the illusion of freedom however visibility is also is the root of all modern day disciplinary mechanisms. Think of modern day satellites orbiting our earth, for everyone that is pointed into space there are countless other pointed down at earth. Think of satellites as Bentham’s modern day observation towers but now they are much higher and practically impossible to know when you are being watched. Despite this giant overhead watchtower spying down on us we go along our daily lives with what we believe to be perfect visibility. We are under constant surveillance everyday; this constant power over us is what contemporary culture has accepted as the “civilized” approach to enforcing discipline in society. Just as in advertising, we see what we are supposed to see, we are given this full visibility of life that ultimately blinds us from seeing it’s true underlying corruption. This new anatomy of politics is the same as the old anatomy of politics; just now we have a higher observation tower and a broader range of visibility.