The Notion of Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control - Essay Example

? Notion of Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control By (Module and number) Notion of Disciplinary Societies and Societies of Control Society has been used to the existence of crime as history has proven. Various forms of violence occurred throughout the world that led to devastations of lives, livelihood and society as a whole. Deaths accompanied the violence as both armed and unarmed people suffer and die from sudden killing to slow and painful torture and murder. Some crimes are not as negative as murder but they still kill the liberties of other people like stealing. Control has been a way to prevent the existence of crimes in the society as rules and laws are implemented and observed. Various ways of control are done as laws are not the only means of it but also through rewards and punishment (Deleuze 1995, p. 5). People who show exemplary values to the society by following the laws and doing their duties for the society are rewarded. On the other hand, violators face the consequence of their actions as they receive the punishment. Punishments are then penalized in various ways and in different degrees. Bribes and stealing may be penalized by lighter sanctions like less than a year of spending time inside the jail or by fines. Higher degrees of crimes are punishable by the law via life sentence and even death penalty (Foucault 1977, p. 130). Another way of prevention of those crimes is through discipline. It is primarily taught at school as the learners must learn the value of self-control. Other programs are even conducted by the government to ensure the proliferation of discipline among the people in the society. It is a good way of preventing crimes from becoming widespread. It also serves as a way of control though it may not be a direct approach. The time nowadays seems to pass by quickly as changes happen almost everyday. The technology advancement accelerates at the speed of information that leads to the creation of the digital age. Information is primarily an important entity for that age as geographical boundaries have been overcome by the geniuses of the people. Networks and computers are now used for education, business and collaboration across fields of interests as people have seen the vast potential of the technology (Best, 2010, p. 6). Internet has proven to be a cost-effective way of advertising and conducting businesses as companies both big and small are able to reach out to a wider range of audience and potential market as they do not need to physically go to other faraway locations just to conduct their businesses. Education also benefits from the technology of the worldwide web as students are able to study anytime and anywhere. It serves as a good form of education especially for the working class. Through online classrooms, multimedia supported web pages and online forums, students are able to study in a flexible manner. Despite of those advantages, the growing popularity and use of internet has posed various risks especially to the security of people. Their identities are transmitted through the interconnected wires and sensitive data are shared. Sometimes it may become the source for frauds, scams and even national threats (Agre, 1994, p. 102). It may pose a big risk to the liberties of the individuals and nations alike. In particular, two concepts will be discussed deeply in the paper based upon the notions of the two authors namely Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze. Foucault wrote about the discipline in the society through his work Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison while Deleuze wrote about the societal control through his work Postscript on the Society of Control. Both concepts will be compared and contrast and analyzed regarding their implications to the current state of the society where mobile phones, computers and internet are widely-used. The concept of discipline in the society as depicted by Foucault showed the starting point of control and how the society deals with crimes. The society was once gruesome and cruel in terms of penalizing the criminals whether they have been the real culprits or not. Public viewings were once very common as the executioners deliver the punishment upon the accused. The whole process was very brutal and censorship was not yet an option. Anybody can watch the whole thing happened as the torture was commenced slowly until the person being executed accept the crime as his own doings. Once he did not swear, he would be subjected to further agony until he faced death. He was killed slowly by having the executioners remove his limbs using pincers and horses. In addition, once his limbs were ripped, volatile substances were added to his wounds that even aggravated the pain being felt by the criminal. His skin was melted by the hot stuff being poured unto him. Also in pulling of his limbs, four to six horses were used as he was dragged along in various directions and sometimes on opposite sides putting more strains into the fragile and wounded body of the criminal being executed (Foucault 1977). Despite those gruesome portions of the process, the execution still involved the swearing unto God and other rituals related to the Catholic faith as the criminal kissed the crucifix before going on to the next stage of the execution. Once he was dealt with, his body is burned into ashes and let the wind blow the tar and dust of the once alive criminal. Everybody saw the activity and it served as a public discouragement of committing any societal harm and crimes. Probably it affected greatly the motivation of people during that time to avoid doing the actions considered by the society as bad and evil. The strictness in discipline was shown as death were publicly viewed to give a picture to people on what might happen to them once they violate the laws of their society. The system was very rigid and inhumane back then as the reformists may say because the treatment was very harsh and it was like slaughtering animals (Foucault 1977). After almost a century, a reform occurred as to change the treatment towards the prisoners especially in Paris. The reform was under the lead of Leon Faucher who made some rules that deviated from the former ones. He elaborated in his rules the time set for the prisoners to work and how they consume the time for briefing regarding their tasks. The changes in the required actions were signaled by a drum-roll and the sequence of the drum-roll indicated different ritual for the day starting with the rising from the bed towards dressing-up and first prayer for the day. The religious rituals of the prisoners were then conducted in the chapel within the vicinity of the prison. Afterwards, an exercise was conducted to ensure the fitness of the prisoners. During mealtime, they need to wash their hands first before receiving their food. Once they finished eating, they spend some more time for leisure. Once the leisure is done, the prisoners would hear a drum-roll again signaling them to form lines and go inside the classroom where they spend about two hours for studying language and mathematics. After studying, they would hear another drum-roll once more to signal them that work time is about to start. Once the afternoon work was done, they would have their supper and go back to work at early evening. When they finished working at night, they would receive a ration of bread followed by an evening religious gathering. After the religious gathering, they would go back to their respective prison cells once they had washed their hands and the clothing inspection was finished. The last two drum-rolls would signify their undressing and going to bed. Once they had slept, the guards would ensure that the doors of the prisons were closed (Foucault 1977). The ancient way of discipline was then composed of public killing of the criminals and rigid daily activities for the prisoners though the penalty for crimes may differ from one another. It led to great reforms after almost a century in the Western countries as the ways of discipline were bombarded with criticisms. Those criticisms drove the next generation of leaders to revolutionize the rulings and dealings with discipline and crimes. Tortures became private in nature and were reduced greatly as the citizens slowly ignore its very existence. The concern that arose was the humanization that continued to occur as to rethink the existing system of dealing with the society (Deleuze 1992, p. 3). The humanization concept is still in question then as the rigidness of the society is still prevalent through the norms, traditions and standards. Even the jury system is uniform in many nations and deals with the way of teaching the behaviors of people through sanctions with subtle and delayed physical pain. Despite of the subtle physical infliction, the rigidness still inflicts pain to the citizens. The reformation led to the control that was exposed and explored in the work of Deleuze. He even cited Foucault about the start of the current conditions of the social system which was deeply rooted from the history of bloody and violent penalties to criminals. Also the enclosure increased as the reformists tend to avoid the infliction of actual and public physical pain, but the invisible pain are still felt as people go from one compartment to another like home to school to military bases and then to factories and hospitals. All of those compartments of the society are closed system on their own following the prison model. People especially the leaders take turns in controlling the lives of their fellowmen through organized labor, systematic life, time alignment, and to specialize (Deleauze 1992, p. 4). The conversion happened in the system but the focus is still on the scarcity and bottleneck effect. In effect, crises are experienced by individuals and groups alike as they are conditioned in closed spaces. Certain reforms are being shared by the governing body but the people already know that those are not practical enough. Free-floating became the thing of the past as control takes over. Knowledge and manipulations then turn into the minute sizes of things as the clash between liberation and enslavement continuously happen. The hospitals, schools, daycares, and hospices can serve as both freedom from the former rigidness and enclosure as the new enslavement. The logic seems to be a bit different from the discipline as the control coexists, each module like the school, military and corporations side-by-side and the enclosure becomes even tighter than before. Sometimes it affects the learning at schools today as the perpetual trainings replace the old school ways and fresh start after another is not seen unlike in the disciplinary societies (Deleauze 1992, p. 5). Struggles and conflicts are everywhere as production is maximized while reducing the remunerations for the workers. They only get more perks based on seniority, qualifications and merits. Rejections are everywhere also as people become more concerned with numbers and quantities. The crisis that arose from the changes from disciplinary societies had built the enclosures and capitalism to the rise of the factories and private ownerships. It then spread out to the more complex situations where machineries are used and higher organizations are valued which are prawn to piracy and virus infestation. The consciousness of humanity goes toward the outside, the physical and material (Deleauze 1992, p. 6). Connections are everywhere and the existence of more than half of the population to be in poverty led to the impracticality of enclosure leaving behind men with debt and not prison. Deleuze then analyzed and predicted that automatic systems and controls would be devised to prevent the ultimate collapse of the system as open environment becomes the trend of today. The programs will serve as the replacements for the former discipline observed in the past centuries (Deleauze 1992, p. 7). The control in the ever-becoming open environment may either become an advantage or disadvantage that may take away the liberties of people. On the bright side, surveillance is good as to keep organized and accurate images and proofs of actions of individuals in the society today. Each action is well-documented through the use of closed-circuit television or CCTV through installed cameras in various locations (Best 2010, p. 7). The images caught by the cameras are recorded and projected on series of interconnected televisions being seen by the guards and for crime scene investigation. CCTVs for surveillance also discourage people from committing violations as they are easily caught in the act just in case they involve themselves in crimes. The downside may befall on some people since it is quite disturbing for them as it shows no privacy at all (Agre 1994, p. 105). Their actions are constantly monitored wherever they go. For others, they do not mind the surveillance as they reasoned out that they do not have anything to hide especially their non-engagement in crimes. Another debate as to the surveillance and control would be on the internet which makes it hard for people to monitor the transfer of their data and activities across networks. For those companies and people, surveillance is the answer to prevent any sensitive data to be leaked (Shaviro 2003). Also it could prevent any virus infections that may destroy the computer system and data. Another significant contribution of the networks is the information dissemination especially for the mobs to gather and fight for political and human rights causes which were done in the Philippines during EDSA II and other movements like in Toronto. Mobile phone messaging and email services were easy means of communication that allowed the mobs to be smart enough as to work in small teams and gather in large groups at certain times and certain situations and places (Rhiengold 2002, p. 162). Perhaps it is quite challenging to put surveillance on it as it may undermine the right for privacy of the mobile phone users. In the world of today, surveillance is inevitable as a control is needed to ensure the safety of the citizens and the society as a whole. It also discourages the involvements in crime, but maybe some adjustments regarding the implementation of the surveillance for the safety must consider the liberties and freedom of individuals. Both are important as rigidness may lead to discrimination and even spark long-term pains despite of the efforts to reduce physical pain. Bibliography Agre, P. (1994) Surveillance and capture: two models of privacy. Information Society, 10 (2), pp. 101-127. Best, K. (2010) “Living in the control society: Surveillance, users and digital screen technologies. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 13(1), pp. 5-24. Deleuze, G. (1992) Postscript on the society of control. The MIT Press, 59 (1) October, pp. 3-7. Foucault, M. (1977) Discipline and punish: the birth of the prison. London, Allen Lane. Rhiengold, H. (2002) Smart mobs: the power of the mobile many. In: Smart mobs: the next social revolution – transforming culture and communities in the age of instant access. Cambridge, MA, Perseus Publishing, pp.157-182. Shaviro, S. (2003) Connected, or what it means to live in the network society. Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press Read More