Jeremy Bentham model called panopticon, is proposed for places where it is ideal to have high surveillance on the occupants and limiting their knowledge of the people watching them. Bentham believed that people better behave themselves when their actions are being watched by an unknown. Bentham explained in an example that a warden served as the overseer and the prisoners the ones being surveilled. The prisoners would be controlled by the deterrence of severe punishment if they were caught. Bentham also explained that the prisoners were to be kept clean and only their freedom was withheld from them. In addition, the warden’s actions were also to be watched by the public to keep him in check. In other words, “Opening the prison widely to the
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When the plague started to kill thousands, measures were put in place to try and weed out the sick and maintain the majority healthy. This involved quarantining areas and keeping a constant watch for outbreaks. Foucault also discusses Bentham’s Panopticon by explaining that “If the inmates are convicts, there is no danger of a plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the future, bad reciprocal influences; if they are patients, there is no danger of contagion; if they are madmen there is no risk of their committing violence upon one another; if they are schoolchildren, there is no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers, there are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of the distractions that slow down the rate of work, make it less perfect or cause accidents. (Foucault 1995: pp. 200-201)” Foucault agrees with Bentham on the process of creating an efficient metropolis by maximizing the amount of people that can be controlled and minimizing the amount of people required to control them. Surveillance has changed as its moved from the plague to prisons and finally the NSA, but constantly oversees people’s private information in hopes of gaining control over some aspect of
When the plague started to kill thousands, measures were put in place to try and weed out the sick and maintain the majority healthy. This involved quarantining areas and keeping a constant watch for outbreaks. Foucault also discusses Bentham’s Panopticon by explaining that “If the inmates are convicts, there is no danger of a plot, an attempt at collective escape, the planning of new crimes for the future, bad reciprocal influences; if they are patients, there is no danger of contagion; if they are madmen there is no risk of their committing violence upon one another; if they are schoolchildren, there is no copying, no noise, no chatter, no waste of time; if they are workers, there are no disorders, no theft, no coalitions, none of the distractions that slow down the rate of work, make it less perfect or cause accidents. (Foucault 1995: pp. 200-201)” Foucault agrees with Bentham on the process of creating an efficient metropolis by maximizing the amount of people that can be controlled and minimizing the amount of people required to control them. Surveillance has changed as its moved from the plague to prisons and finally the NSA, but constantly oversees people’s private information in hopes of gaining control over some aspect of