Essay About Tom Anderton And Minority Report

Panopticism Retorical Analysis
Essay Preview: Panopticism Retorical Analysis
Report this essay
I have recently read an essay that piqued my interest. It was entitled “Panopticism” by Michel Foucault. This essay took the idea, initially popularized by Jeremy Bentham of “a self-policing” prison system and used it as a frame from which to view society and how authority works within it. Foucault discussed how the idea of the “pan-opticon” was eventually so interwoven into society that even hospitals had adopted its premise. I have also recently watched the film “The Minority Report” which detailed judicially a complete, panoptic society. This film illustrates the potential effect of a panoptic society on the criminal prosecution system (albeit very futuristically.) Panopticism can be most clearly seen when Tom Anderton, the main protagonist, attempts to solve crimes before they actually happen. He manages to do this feat, by utilizing the skills of three human beings who have the ability to see into the future. There future predictions are streamed onto large TV screens, however sometimes these videos are quite choppy and of poor quality, similar to YouTube videos. Tom Anderton is then able to find out exactly where and when the murder takes place, along with who the perpetrator is and what set of events led up to the crime before it is actually committed. In many ways this has led the members of everyday society to act in such a way that is quite similar to how prisoners act in Bentham’s layout of the Panopticon. In the Panopticon, the threat of observation was enough to deter “prisoners” from violating the rules. This is a direct parallel to Minority Report where the constant threat of being seen planning a murder is enough to almost completely eradicate homicide in the “pre-crime” zones. This effectively achieves exactly what Bentham strived for, a system where the “guarding” of individuals is essentially done automatically. “Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.”        As the film begins we are given a window to watch the pre-crime procedure in action. Anderton manages to swoop in to the rescue right before a murder was about to take place, by viewing context clues in the setting projected onto the future viewing TV screens. As soon as Anderton stops the murderer from what he was planning to do he immediately puts a “prison collar” on him and sends him into a frozen state of confinement. This is to achieve the government’s first political dream, a pure community. He is able to do this immediate arrest because he already has sufficient evidence for sentencing due to the fact that he was able to view everything on the future TV screens. In this situation Anderton is acting as the “guard” of the Panopticon. This turns society in a Panoptic machine “for dissociating the see/being seen dyad where one is totally seen, without ever seeing” Anderton is able to see everything at all times and therefore effectively institutes a self-policing society that is so fearful of being watched at any time they feel compelled to be on their best behavior to show the “guards” what good people they are. This effectively achieves the governments second political dream, that of the, disciplined society. This a direct representation of what Foucault said was the political goals of governments past, “The first is that of a pure community, the second that of a disciplined society.”        The leaders of the future seeing project use the “pre-crime” division as a base to launch off of in order to expand Panopticism throughout the entirety of society. They do this by touting the benefits and success it brought to the law enforcement branch and describing how effective it could be in other areas. While I believe we live in a panoptic society, Panopticism is taken even further in every aspect of this movie’s society. From schools, to hospitals Panopticism holds and iron grip. While in modern day panoptic society you can view Panopticism by the numerous exams we make students take and the tests we run on our sick, Panopticism can be seen in the movie in the way school children plan how much time to study for a test based on what score they are told they will get, and patients are sure to not schedule vacations on days they will be sick. There society is panoptic in such a way that the people are the “prisoners” and the future seeing technology is the “cells”. This is done to keep order throughout society and minimize crime through self-policing.  Society has to police its own thoughts in order to not be detected with the future sensing technology.        According to Foucault, the Panopticon contains two main methods of discipline. “One is the discipline blockade . . . At the other extreme, with Panopticism, is the discipline-mechanism: a functional mechanism that must improve the exercise of power by making it lighter, more rapid, more effective, a design of subtle coercion for a society to come.” The latter form of discipline is about making a stronger, much more effective Panopticon, where not only are the people in the traditional cells being watched, but the guard is almost in a cell of his own, in what could represent one tier of a multi-tiered Panopticon. In Minority Report this is shown almost perfectly during the rising action of the movie where Anderton himself is supposedly viewed on the future seeing TV screen committing a murder. This puts Anderton the “guard” figure in a cell of his own on the multi leveled Panopticon of this futuristic society. After Anderton makes the discovery that someone is watching him too, but not in a sousveillance sense, he becomes obsessed with clearing his name and working out these supposed kinks in the system to make the panoptic society more effective. He does this by increasing what the organization can see (“increasing sight”) which results in a more powerful system as a whole. He has turned his system into an even more effective organization, and has followed a path which matches all the criteria Foucault has laid out. “The discipline of the workshop, while remaining a way of enforcing respect for the regulations and authorities, of preventing thefts and losses, tends to increase aptitudes, speeds, output, and therefore profits; it still exerts a moral influence over behavior, but more and more it treats actions in terms of their results, introduces bodies into a machinery, forces into an economy.”