Foucault and the Panopticon

I began reading Foucault’s passage on Panopticism and quickly realized that I had no idea what I was reading.  I was reminded, however, of George Orwell’s 1984, by the description of a highly surveillanced society.  This particular society from the reading was checked up on every day and given tasks to carry out.  I quickly gave up on this section and moved to the section on the Panopticon.  This topic was incredibly interesting to me, and left me wondering why all jails aren’t Panopticons today.  The idea is to have inmates—whether thieves, madmen, murderers, or any other kind of crazed human—fearing authority.  They aren’t locked up in dark cells, or behind heavy bars.  They stay in a circular building with light shining through their rooms.  In the center of the building is a large tower where the authority figure stays.  The prisoners cannot see into the tower from the help of Venetian blinds and zig zag openings that hide shadows and beams of light.  They never know if they are being watched or not so it always keeps them on their toes.  Foucault says “invisibility is a guarantee of order” (287) and uses other examples besides a prison to illustrate this idea.  He talks about if you place schoolchildren in an environment where they know they’re being watched, there is less of a likelihood for cheating and talking.  Also, in a work environment, workers would have less distractions and a quicker rate of work if they knew they were constantly being watched.  I think the idea of the Panopticon is ingenious, and its functioning can be summarized in this quote: “The more numerous those anonymous and temporary observers are, the greater the risk for the inmate of being surprised and the greater his anxious awareness of being observed.“ (289).