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Summary Of Foucault's Discipline And Punish

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Lastly is the French philosopher, Michel Foucault. In his book, Discipline and Punish, Foucault offers a different view on the evolution of state punishment. The modern view of our punishment system is that it is more humane compared to the past where criminals were executed in public squares, but Foucault disagrees with this. He said that power today looks kind, but actually it isn’t, whereas in the past it was clearly shown as barbaric. The modern prison system becomes a rehabilitation - a surveillance in the production of docile bodies. In addition to that, it happens behind locked bars, not in the public spectacle, in which no one could no longer witness, and thus, defy state power. Because of this, he claims that the modern prison system is still barbaric – a wolf in a sheep’s clothing. Just because we have recovered our democracy from Martial Law, the most barbaric period in our political history, doesn’t mean we are now free. We may now enjoy press freedom as we could rant all we want in the social media spectacle, and no one would implicitly arrest, detain, and execute us even we dare to speak ill against the government. This is as opposed to the Martial Law period when people who fought against Marcos dictatorship will be illegally arrested, tortured, and salvaged. We are deluded to the belief that we now live in a more humane society. Lest we forget, that the media construct reality – it has made us possible to rant our observations, not realizing that most part
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