Imagine the feeling as a football fanatic when your favorite player scores a decisive goal on the dying minutes of the football match, only for the goal to be disallowed because according to the new technology the Video Assistant Refer (VAR), the player seemed to be on the offside position! Does it feel good or bad? That kind of a stinging feeling is what students and athletes feel in the present world where power controls almost everything. Foucault, in his series of investigation and articles, view power not as something the government, or the king exercise over his or her subject, but as discipline approach in the modern world which has a historical context. In this case, the word discipline does not mean the top-down application of direct or indirect coercion as most people may think, but power is used in a manner that makes an individual control him or herself. Particularly, there are different techniques of power usage according to Foucault, that subject a person in self-discipline and control. In such a case, a person has a feeling that he or she is under surveillance yet, he or she cannot see the person watching him or her. Foucault, thus, bases his arguments on the use of knowledge and power to instill discipline in prisons, hospitals, schools, and even different athletic environment. As a student yearning to become an athlete, a person must be ready to face the impact of power. The use of power as discussed by Foucault is critical for the success of a person who yearns to become a student and athlete. The success of such a person in class and athlete world is dependent on the application of power and knowledge to create discipline which enhances an environment where fair play is given number one priority.
Analysis
“ This book is intended as a correlative history of the modern soul and of a new power to judge” (Foucault, 2012). This quote is a summary of the entire project Foucault discusses in article Discipline and Punish. The quotes is an implication of a transition from a situation where the judges were using atrocities and public sentencing as a mode of punishment, to a situation where the experts of human science use knowledge and power to judge each person using the established rules and culture in the society. Further, the quote is suggesting that the shift is not only with regards to the new approaches to achieving discipline through the use of power and knowledge on judgment but also on the mode of punishment. The quote suggests that there is a shift in punishment mode and currently, the new approaches target the soul than the body. According to Foucault, the experts were combining knowledge and power to create a disciplinary mechanism in the prisons. The experts created a controlled environment for the prisoners. Using their knowledge as experts, they came up with different methods which they use to put the prisoners under surveillance. A good example is the Panopticism. This was a prison which was under heavy surveillance. It had a central tower from where the prisoners were watched. The prisoners could not see those people watching them, but they behaved mannerly since they knew they were under surveillance. According to the experts, “The Panopticon is a marvelous machine which, whatever use one may wish to put it to, produces homogeneous effects of power” (Foucault, 2012).
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Also, the new mode of punishment is encroaching into the future. The term future in this context means the modern era which is still free from the control mode of enhancing discipline. According to Gilles Deleuze's, Postscript on the Societies of Control “ These are the societies of control, which are in the process of replacing the disciplinary societies. ‘Control’ is the name Burroughs proposes as a term for the new monster, one that Foucault recognizes as our immediate future” (Deleuze, 1992). It is an implication that the control system will carry the day as the primary approach for disciplinary action in most institutions in the modern world. It further implies that the control system is encroaching into modern institutions where discipline is highly regarded. The control system in the contemporary world is where people will be exposed to a different kind of surveillance. Discussing the future of the control system, and how the control system combines power and knowledge to create a self-indicated discipline, Foucault brings the issue of Panopticism into the discussion. According to him, Panopticism extends to the modern era. The Panopticism issue is a similar situation in the transport sector in the current world. In the current transport system, there are a lot of security cameras on the road to monitor vehicles’ speed. This principle works in the sense that human behavior is controlled by the sense of awareness of possible control.
Application
School is an environment where learning is the primary routine through interactions between the students and their teachers. As a result of intense interactions, and the degree of concentration that is necessary for an academic environment, the school environment has codes of conducts and regulations which enhance a high degree of discipline among the students. As a student, discipline is paramount for success in examinations, and proper interaction between the students and the teachers. In school, the teachers have both positional power and expert power over their students. As a result, the students are the underdogs and must adhere to all manner of power manipulation by the teacher to achieve their goals as students. The teachers thus have different ways of viewing their students. The way the teachers view their students help them come up with knowledge-based strategies of power manipulations to create an environment where discipline reigns. They come up with knowledge on how they can use their power to exercise control over the students. The teachers perceive students as creatures who rely on them to perfect their future through Education. Further, the teachers view students as creatures who cannot have self-control. In their view, the students must be given a restricted direction and path that can lead them to academic success. Moreover, the students in their teachers’ view are people who cannot supervise themselves. As a result, they need guidance through the path of success. In the teachers’ perception. Students cannot excel in case the teachers are ignoring the supervisory role, which includes behavior observation. The goal of power usage in the school environment by the teachers is to enhance discipline and academic excellence among the students.
The combination of power and knowledge help in shaping the students' behavior which further helps them achieve their goals in school. Classrooms are similar to the Panopticism. In classrooms, students are under surveillance. The teachers use their knowledge and power to ensure that there is discipline during academic work. For instance, there are codes of conduct during an examination that ensures that the students remain honest and reduce the issue of cheating. The codes state that in case a student is caught cheating, the student is exterminated from the school. After extermination, it is a challenge for the student to get another school that can be willing to accommodate him or her. It is clear that the control, in this case, helps the students in many ways. First, the students get an opportunity to grow into honest individuals who give integrity a priority. The culture of integrity is critical for both the students and society. Further, the students also know that those codes exist which demand honesty from them. They also know that the consequences of breaking such codes are severe. In this sense, the students’ try to remain honest while taking their examinations. This is critical as it enhances the academic integrity and also, help the students avoid extermination from the school environment. Other control methods where power and knowledge are used to come up with an academic discipline environment are the use of security cameras and security personnel in the School Environment, to monitor the students’ movements and behaviors by the teachers. In such a case, it is possible to find that many such security cameras are not working. However, their presence makes the students behave well since they have a feeling of being watched by their teachers. This brings about a situation where the students concentrate only on their academic works. At the end of their learning, they get good results which make them better people in the society.
Athletes are people who have talents and use them in different sports field to entertain people. Sports have become an integral part of society in the modern period. A sport such as football is taking over with a large number of fans that keeps on growing on a daily basis. Athletes are thus becoming famous in society. The goal of every athlete is to become the best of his or her generation in the area of the sport he or she is participating. Many regulations govern athletes and ensure that they become a discipline. The existence of such rule, as well as the manner of their use, is an indication that there is the use of knowledge and power to create a control to achieve discipline and adherence from different athletes. The organizations that control athletes view them as people who deserve fair competition to excel in their career. Ensuring that all athletes are discipline with regard to fair game, such leaders come up with ideas and use their positional power to impose such ideas so that every athlete is under check to ensure that they adhere to the requirements. Anti-doping and other in-field regulation are in existence to ensure that all athletes are at the same level before the game commence. For an athlete who wants to excel in this field, manipulation of power to create a control by their leaders to bring about discipline is paramount. In an environment where power is manipulated through the use of knowledge to achieve discipline, athletes have a chance to advance their career in sports. Further, such athletes have the opportunity to participate in any country since such regulations also minimize issue which affects athletes negatively such as racism.
In an art shell, the use of knowledge to manipulate power to achieve discipline in different activities and institutions is critical. The self-discipline which comes when a person has a feeling of being control is vital as it shapes the behavior. For instance, athletes are usually under different regulations. As a result, they feel the sense of power that makes them strive to achieve their best through an honest way. Students on the other hands, strive to excel in their exams without cheating due to the sense feeling of being watched.
References
Deleuze, G. (1992). Postscript on the Societies of Control. October , 59 , 3-7.
Foucault, M. (2012). Discipline and Punish: The birth of the prison . Vintage.
