Panopticism

What is panopticism?

In modern society, we have to endure lots of international problems like terrorism, fraud and general injustice and crime. Governments are increasingly becoming police states and believe that surveillance is the way in which we can combat these problems. The philosopher Jeremy Bentham once designed a plan for a prison, which was never actually built, but it has many similarities to the way our society is constructed, institutions such as prisons and schools, hospitals and now even our presence on the internet and a walk in the park can be compared to Benthams’ plan. His architectural plans were a material representation of something that has been a central part of many religious beliefs, notably the Abrahamic religions such as Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The idea that there is an omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient God which we must all obey. Bentham’s prison plan was called the Panopticon.

Panopticism then, is the phenomena of being surveilled in society and what effect that has on our thoughts, emotions and behaviour.

The Panopticon

The design of the Panopticon is perfect. It has a guard tower in the center of the complex, which has a 360° view of the surrounding wall area, from floor to ceiling. The prison cells are located all around the tower across the walls on several floors. Each prison cell is visible from the tower and all prisoners are able to see each other too. There is nowhere to hide, no privacy at all. There is another component not visible in the diagram – the watchtower windows are reflective, meaning only the guards inside the tower can see outwards and no one on the outside can see inside the tower.

This serves a profound function. As no one can be sure whether someone is inside the tower watching them, prisoners will have to modify their behaviour with the assumption that someone is always watching them, This means that the tower could be empty from time to time, or maybe all of the time and this would still not affect the social order within the prison. The environment of the Panopticon is one of no-privacy and so it follows that the emotional and mental state that the building itself provokes will keep order inside the prison with great efficiency.

There are many other meticulous details that Bentham included in his design, even the prison routines that were designed to teach discipline were covered to such an extent that ‘perfect’ is not an over exaggeration. If you want to know more about the Panopticon, check it out on Wikipedia and also read the works of Michel Foucault, who constructed the social theory of panopticism.

Centralised control

The Panopticon serves as a physical design that represents society and governmentality. A centralised system of control in which conformity is the goal. It is because of this reason that it is a useful visual aid when talking about modern society and ‘surveillance states’.

Panopticism in everyday institutions

Schools, offices, hospitals, prisons and our time online or walking in the streets, parks or our own backyards, are now currently under constant surveillance. Closed Circuit Television is the most obvious form of panoptic technology, but in more recent years mobile phones and tablets are owned by pretty much every single person in the developed world, adding to the feeling that we are being watched not only by the state, but by each other too. Surveillance is even turned onto ourselves as we constantly upload our own actions, thoughts and feelings to the internet (see my thread on ‘Ecology for Extension Technologies’)[1] This is the exact same principle behind the Panopticon. The centralised powers don’t even have to have their cameras turned on, or be recording any images, citizens record each other! The Gestapo in Nazi Germany was perhaps the most blatant form of this type of panoptic technology, or the events that occured during the ‘Black Death’ of the Bubonic Plague outbreak.

More complex panoptic technologies such as GCHQ and NSA ultra surveillance programs of our phone calls, web cam chats, images we upload, forums we post to, websites we go to for shopping – are all being monitored, recorded and analysed for ‘meta-data’.

Although Edward Snowden and Julian Assange were profound whistleblowers, there is a deeper, more sinister element to the public being ‘well informed’ that escapes notice. The government has the objective of achieving absolute control through policing, the revealing of such technologies does nothing to diminish their power – it actually amplifies their power – they want us to think we are being watched constantly as they are fully aware of the power of the Panopticon. Our thoughts, feelings and actions are regulated by the presence of surveillance. To the police state, that’s satisfactory. Although states never actually have total control, total control is something states aspire to nonetheless.

The point being that governments could leak documents themselves and still achieve the goal of control, as insecurity increases maximum security. The same logic can be applied to conspiracy theory advocates. Some conspiracies are so utterly terrifying that they lead to paralysis, even though they are sold as ‘getting the truth to the people’, they can and certainly have been used as part of the power dynamic itself to give credit to the state powers many times greater than they actually are.

Private security

The war on terror has shown itself to be mainly about controlling domestic affairs, as opposed to outside insurgency. Governments and corporartions are increasingly merging into one single entity and neoliberal economics has led to austerity cuts in police forces. This has ‘opened up a market’ for the security industry. The protection of private property has taken over the civil rights advocacy movements, with increasing intensity – public spaces are becoming corporate spaces with their own laws and rules, full of surplus to requirement security guards who frequently infringe our right to privacy and freedom of speech. Some privately owned areas of the UK ban outright protests, making a speech, filming on your mobile phone or even drawing a building! Hybrid laws that are supposed to be used for terror suspects allow private security guards to call on the police if they find someone to be acting ‘suspisciously’. Many artists and architects have been attacked by police for drawing or sketching buildings in these corporate zones under section 41 of the 2000 Terrorism Act. On the flip side, this is a profitable venture, as many victims have recieved £1000’s in compensation for wrongful arrest and harrassment.

Canary Wharf in the East End Docklands of London is perhaps the most perverse example of what neoliberalism envisions for the future. A privately owned space full of big corporations and banks, luxury gated communities that are shut off from the outside world and it’s troubles, heavily guarded by police and private security guards every 10 feet or so. These places have lost what it means to be human and free, they are a sad sign of what is to come – ruthless corporate politics that enclose our bodies.

Orwell

The best literary work that comes to everyone’s mind when talking about surveillance states, is George Orwell’s novel, 1984. Panopticism is the technology behind Big Brother.