Nobody likes to be watched. Ok, the voyeur is a special case. And s/he only likes to be watched under specific circumstances--and ones under her control. No one likes to be watched outside these self-named parameters.
That is the idea behind Jeremy Bentham's ingenious prison: the panopticon. Here prisoners live in a circle of cells around a central watchtower where guards watch them day or night--or pretend to. It amounts to the same thing. Fiendishly brilliant. They're never alone or at least feel that way. And modify their behavior accordingly. First the external conscience of the guard. Then it becomes a part of the prisoner and he guards himself.
Michel Foucault took the panopticon as a central point in his study of the dark side of prison reform. His main argument being that the apparent humanism of modern penal logic moved from marking the body with torture to marking the soul with surveillance. Think about it. Which is worse? Physical pain or mental? Hmmm...?
In any case, the panopticon is a major point in Foucault's argument about the disciplinary technologies that modernity introduced. Not so pleasant. Not so humane. The body is free because the soul is caged. And worse, it is imprisoned in bonds of its own making.
Foucault states that 'the major effect of the Panopticon [is] to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. So to arrange things that the surveillance is permanent in its effects, even if it is discontinuous in its action; that the perfection of power should tend to render its actual exercise unnecessary; that this architectural apparatus should be a machine for creating and sustaining a power relation independent of the person who exercises it; in short, that the inmates should be caught up in a power situation of which they are themselves the bearers (Discipline and Punish, p. 201).' And the Panopticon is 'polyvalent in its applications; it serves to reform prisoners, but also to treat patients, to instruct schoolchildren, to confine the insane, to supervise workers, to put beggars and idlers to work. It is a type of location of bodies in space, of hierarchical organization, of dispositon of centres and channels of power, of definition of the instruments and modes of intervention of power, which can be implemented in hospitals, workshops, schools, prisons (Discipline and Punish, p. 205).' Or on the streets, we might add--and then everywhere!
Camille del Toro further modernizes Foucault's argument. He applies this logic to the electronic bracelet: 'Two of the principles Foucault saw embodied by the Panopticon also apply to the electronic bracelet. First, the asymmetrical relationship that allows the watcher see the watched without being seen. Second, the internalization of the mechanism of control by the prisoner, making him "the principle of his own subjection." "The individual subjected to a field of visibility, and who is aware of it, himself becomes the agent of the constraints placed upon him by power--he spontaneously applies them to his own person (Coming of Age...p. 44)."'
Electronic bracelets are so 1990s. The surveillance tools of the state have expanded significantly. Now the state can seriously watch without being seen; and it wants to extend its invisible omniscience. We have cctv everywhere; police filming is ubiquitous. Add to that state after state's attempt to control the internet, social media and cellphones; their desire to monitor all internet and other communications; their use of warrantless eavesdropping and other searches; and their secret gathering and perusing of internet records. And SOPA will only expand this power.
The Panopticon is becoming the whole world. Right now, you may be watched as you read this post. Who knows what attracts their attention? Who knows who they are?
But if you aren't doing anything wrong, then you have nothing to hide? Right?
Who knows? That is the uncertainty and the anxiety that helps the Panopticon discipline us. We know we aren't doing anything wrong but because we fear we're being watched, we feel guilty and uncomfortable. We don't like that. We want it to stop. So what do we do? Self-censorship. Self-discipline. We avoid anything that might attract the watchers.
Liberal democracy is ultimately about crowd control. Glenn Greenwald points out that the purpose of the brutal suppression of the Occupy Movement in the USA is to send signals to the rest of us. To frighten us. And keep us safe at home. On paper, you have the right to protest. In practice, if you use it you will be beaten and pepper-sprayed and otherwise tortured. But you are free to be subjected to police torment. If you wish to exercise your right to protest, that is the price. Are you willing?
The Sauron eye of the watchers has the same chilling effect on free speech. Yes, on paper you have the right to say whatever you want but remember we will be watching you. And who knows when we're watching. And who knows when you'll say something bad. Bad enough that we can do something about it. So maybe you should watch what you say. Get your inner watcher watching for us. Then we won't need the truncheons and the tear gas and the pepper spray and the rubber bullets.
Be a good prole and stay at home. We'll keep you safe. We'll watch you.
But who will watch the watchers? Why, we will watch them...?
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