Panopticism:
The Missing Piece…. What they
are not telling you.
By:
Hunter Brown
And
Annalise LiaBraaten
Panopticism in everyday life:
The Idea
 The Vision
 Present Day

Parent Child Relationship
 Religion
 Schools
 Technology
 Can it work?

The idea of Panopticism

Michel Foucault's Idea

Controlling Behavior through fear of being
watched.
 Derived
from Jeremy Bentham’s idea of the
Panopticon
The panopticon was the design of a prison in
which each prisoner would be contained in a
solitary cell in a set of cell placed in a circle
around a central tower. The prisoners would not
be able to see the guards in the tower. The
prisoners would also not be able to see each
other or to interact without being monitored at
all times.

The idea is to imprint in the criminals head that they are
constantly being watched. It is hoped that once released
the prisoner, having this notion of constantly being
surveyed, will alter or correct behavior such that they will
not longer commit crimes because they will feel they are
under surveillance.
Panopticism in schools

Foucault’s Vision

Separate children in a fashion similar to that of the
prisoners in the Panopticon

Less classroom chattering and distraction


More effective learning environment
Problems



Children lose social interaction
By placing children in groups it enables the children to
teach each other
Some children learn better from another child explaining
how a certain system works

There are added benefits to the children who then teach

By teaching the child undergoes a greater understanding of the
process which they now must teach to another individual.
Panopticism in the Parent
Child Relationship
Santa Claus is Coming to Town
Lyrics:
“He sees you when your sleeping, he knows when you’re wake, he
knows if you’ve been bad or good so be good for goodness sake.
You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling
you why; Santa Claus is coming to town.”
The Hidden Meaning:
“He sees you when your sleeping, he knows
when you’re wake, he knows if you’ve
been bad or good”

This song signifies Santa’s omniscient abilities
“You better watch out, you better not cry, you
better not pout I’m telling you why”
 It
controls children’s behavior through fear of not
getting gifts
Religion

Societal necessity



Teaches people to be good to one another
Necessary as a form of maintaining order in
developing civilizations.
Does so by controlling the thoughts and actions
of individuals

Sins




Indecent thoughts
Acts of violence
Not following the teachings
Committing Sins will lead to eternal Damnation

Religion can be manipulated to be a form of control to
get individuals to follow as set of given rules and
guidelines by fear of punishment.
dogma 1: a religious doctrine that is proclaimed as
true without proof 2: a doctrine or code of beliefs
accepted as authoritative.
"Through the Looking Glass". That poem, "The Walrus and the Carpenter"
that's an indictment of organized religion. The walrus, with his girth
and his good nature, he obviously represents either Buddha, or... or
with his tusk, the Hindu elephant god, Lord Ganesha. That takes care
of your Eastern religions. Now the carpenter, which is an obvious
reference to Jesus Christ, who was raised a carpenter's son, he
represents the Western religions. Now in the poem, what do they do...
what do they do? They... They dupe all these oysters into following
them and then proceed to shuck and devour the helpless creatures en
masse. I don't know what that says to you, but to me it says that
following these faiths based on mythological figures ensure the
destruction of one's inner-being. Organized religion destroys who we
are by inhibiting our actions... by inhibiting our decisions, out of... out
of fear of some... some intangible parent figure who... who shakes a
finger at us from thousands of years ago and says... and says, "Do it Do it and I'll fu[**]in' spank you. “
-Loki
Quote from the Movie “Dogma”

This quote shows that interpretation
depends on the view of the reader.

Religion is a very powerful tool that in
most cases promotes peace; however, it
can also be used as device for control by
using fear as a motivator or instigator.
Panopticism in History
Hitlerjugend
Boy Scout

The Nazi Party

Started a “Boy Scout” type organization called the
“Hitlerjugend” (Hitler Youth)

Like scouts, the hitlerjugend, had weekly meetings
teaching them survival basics. Part of their survival they
were taught depended on the strength of their country
men and women.


Speaking out against the government or disobeying the
law weakened the country
The hitlerjugend were instructed to report any and all
individuals including family members to their leader.
 These violators were then arrested.
Who’s Watching You?

Your children

Would you believe that this current school
program is modeled after the Nazi’s
monitoring system?
Children Report on Family
Members

The DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education)
Program


Designed to teach kids the dangers of drugs
Encourages Kids to report any and all illegal activity to the
Police

This destroys the families involved often leading to divorce of the
parents and/or undoing of family ties. (see the web sites listed
under sources for several examples)
Who’s Selling Your Information?

Everything in this world is for sale even
you.
Your Grocery store

The Grocery store offers those great
member discount cards free of charge.

What they are really doing is tracking your
every purchase.
Financial institutions

Track spending habits
•Sell your information
•This is the reason you get phone calls
advertising special offers.
New Technology

Organized Crime


Where there’s technology, there’s theft.
Local Police

Cameras at intersections
 Now

you can have tickets mailed to you!
The government
Monitors your phone calls
 Capable of finding you anywhere in the
world

Organized Crime

Not only do the banks have cameras
but so do Criminals, and theirs are
more high tech.
Typical ATM
Camera hidden inside
that allows both the
screen and touch pad to
be viewed as you enter
in your password.
Getting the pin isn’t enough to
clean out your account.

That’s why they also steal your ATM
card number.
Standard ATM
Device to capture ATM card
number.
As long as the information is there it
can be stolen or sold.
 Increasing technology doesn’t make
you safe. But you sure will be told that
it will.
 As long as there is system to keep you
safe there exists a system to get
around it.

The Police

Cameras at intersections

The idea was good- install cameras to prevent accidents
caused by motorists running red lights through fear of being
issued a ticket when caught on camera.

The reality is that the fear of being ticketed is so great that
accidents actually increased as a result of motorists panicking
and slamming on the breaks when they would have otherwise
gone through the intersection.
The Government

Currently the U.S. Government monitors
every cell phone conversation made in the
U.S. (possibly in the world)

They search for certain key words


Then the key words are run through a computer
program that filters the key words and finds the context
in which they are used to determine if the person is a
threat to National Security.
Tracking your location

The FCC has recently required that all cell phones
contain GPS (Global Positioning System)
technology

The user will be able to be tracked within 300 meters by
next year.
They know who you are.
They know what you’ve read.
 They know your interests

Purchases made
 Search’s on the internet

They know what you eat
 They know where you are and where
you have been.
 You cannot escape.

Panopticism works

New York City was experiencing high
volumes of crime rates.

To combat criminal behavior Mayor Rudolf
Giuliani decided to put fear into the
criminals of the city
 The
number one area crime took place was in
the Subway system.
Giuliani realized that as long as area existed in
which criminals felt comfortable they would
go there to commit crimes.
Subway map w/ Graffiti
Subway car w/ Graffiti
Rudolf created an new work force for the subway system
who’s sole purpose was to clean all graffiti within 1 hour
of it being put up.
The clean stations made the criminals believe
that they were in a clean place thus affecting their
decision to commit crimes. They were uncomfortable
trashing or misbehaving in such a pure space.
Subway Station
Subway car - clean
The missing piece
With all the advances in technology we should
feel safer, right? But the truth is with all this
added safety comes added risk. What you
aren’t told is how all these new technological
advances will impact your life in a negative
way. If the government can track you then so
can anyone. With all the available detailed
information about our lives out there it
becomes that much easier for individuals to
find out our most personal information; and
use it to influence and take over our lives.
Sources


Panoticon-http://besser.tsoa.nyu.edu/impact/f96/Projects/dengberg/
Parent-child


Dogma




Santa Picture-http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=view&id=418066
Definition-http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dogma
Movie quote-http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120655/quotes
Movie cover photohttp://www.chez.com/infofilm/Data/Jaquettes/D/dogma/dogma%20av.jpg
Children watching family members

DARE






http://www.sayno.com/dare34.html
http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Content?oid=10752
http://cyphernet.org/cyphernomicon/chapter11/11.10.html
http://forums.newspeakdictionary.com/viewtopic.php?t=334&highlight=dare+pa
rent
http://cyphernet.org/cyphernomicon/chapter11/11.10.html
Nazi Party

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Whatsup_will
Sources- cont.

The Government





Traffic Cameras





http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/07/733.asp
http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/02/288.asp
http://www.phantomplate.com/print_nytimes.html
http://www.stopredlightrunning.com/html/newsrelease_011905.ht
m
Bank Cameras


http://www.alternet.org/story/12776/
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,69390-0.html
http://www.tifac.org.in/offer/tsw/japnano.htm#photo
http://chem4823.usask.ca/~cassidyr/OnNano-PanopticismASociologicalPerspective.htm#_edn6
http://www.snopes.com/crime/warnings/atmcamera.asp
Subway

http://www.italian-american.com/rudyg.htm