GeekinthePink

The whole concept of power being unverified is interesting. Kind of a big brother thing. I read a quote somewhere that said "George Orwell may be in 1984, but he can still predict the future." Ooh how correct sir. I mean, really, in 1984, they were actually being watched and getting caught was more than a threat, but still, the thought of power and consequence is a lot of times more powerful than actually seeing someone standing over you. For instance, my daughter likes to put on makeup. Now, she's only 2 and a half, so I don't particularly like it and she always smears it all over her face and the walls, so you can imagine she is not actually allowed to do this. But, it still happens every once and a while. How it happens now is that she takes it into the corner and hides behind the bed. Why? Because she knows I am there and If I seen her, she would be caught. The actual threat of being caught is there, but she tries to avoid this by hiding from my watchful gaze. Certainly, if there was nowhere to hide, she would not take the purse with the makeup because she knows she cannot do it with me watching.

Same thing with the prisoners and Foucalt. He has an excellent theory because if the prisoners do not know they are being watched, do not know who has the gun, they feel as if an eye is following them wherever they go. Consequently, it would take a brave (perhaps stupid) prisoner to commit an atrocity against himself or guards or fellow prisoners. "Our society is one not of spectacle, but one of surveillance." Very true. I'm thinking the medieval society was more spectacle. Where they tortured people, displayed heads on posts, made examples out of people. This postmodern society is observing, like animals in a cage. What goes on in the minds of these criminals? There are shows analyzing their minds and motives on the history and discovery channels. We send people to mental hospitals instead of prison in some cases. We are all about breaking down where these romanticized murderers get their twisted ambitions from. Not really sure if this is the way to go.