Foucault Discipline And Punish Analysis

Contemporary society is a disciplinary society and is necessary to have.

In Foucault’s book, Discipline and Punish, he explains the gradual change of 17th century punishments compared to the modern more gentle way of creating discipline and punishing people who commit crimes within society. Today’s society is based on norms that we have all adopted from birth, norms of public behavior and interaction; this has subconsciously created our disciplined society. In this paper I will refer to an example of imprisoning someone who committed a crime. I will examine ways that contemporary society is a disciplined society as Foucault described; and given my example, it will demonstrate our need for it and how disciplinary society can help contemporary
Control, in this context, should be seen more as a way to ensure safety rather than a way to limit freedom and oppress the public. Foucault refers to these techniques as means of corrective training; hierarchical observation, normalizing judgment, and examination. Whether we think of it or not, these techniques have been used for centuries by many institutions, organizations, and undoubtedly our very own government. First, hierarchical observation for Foucault is an exercise of discipline that is part of a system that allows a way of control. It is a mode of surveillance, which in turn forms the disciplinary society. Hierarchical observation may seem like something that is more associated with a dictatorship, where decisions only come from one top person of power or in the 17th century where kings decided what to do with delinquents. For example, in the 17th century, when someone committed a crime they were hanged, beheaded, or humiliated in front of the public; this was a form of government revenge. This disciplinary society has changed into beginning with an observation by the hierarchy, as Foucault explains. A judgment on whether the individual is misbehaving would be the first step in the disciplinary process. Second, Foucault describes normalizing judgment, where punishment takes part in what defines good from evil. Some might ask who decides what’s good and what’s evil? The hierarchy
While the government decides good from evil, citizens embrace it because it is believed to be for our personal benefit. This results in us trusting the hierarchy and hoping that they don’t abuse their power. Hierarchical observation today is spread out among different people depending on the regulations and the field of observation; for example traffic tickets vs. park regulations, or taxes, etc. Today, many people work on laws that are passed, however there is only one judge in the courtroom that can decide the future of an individual that committed a crime against a given law. Our government serves as the hierarchy and sets public regulations, but only one judge is responsible for the punishments assigned with a crime. Our laws are put in the hands of one, who is then trusted to exercise the greater good, which is decided by the hierarchy. The known consequences associated with committing crimes today keeps people from doing them for the mere reason that they will receive jail time, which results in the loss of your freedom for the time being. For that reason, having the sense of being observed through disciplinary power is good because people regulate themselves. Normalizing judgment, today, can simply be seen as the basic norms and values the society holds. For us, the public adopts these judgments subconsciously through one’s childhood. The idea to kill is thought of as bad because the loss of freedom is a