1.) Foucault's example of the plague is not "opposed" to that of the leper. They are "different" projects but not incompatible ones (285). According to Foucault, they are coming together: "individualize the excluded, but use procedures of individualization to mark exclusion" (285). Thus, we divide people into binary categories: mad/sane, dangerous/harmless and then we brand them with one or the other, which then indvidualizes them. Thus, someone becomes separated from society due to their branding as 'abnormal' and then we decide we will try and make them 'normal' again through disciplinary techniques.
The model of the 'plague' gives rise to disciplinary mechanisms because discipline calls for a distribution and and ordering of any kind of disorder and confusion, which is the model of the plague. However, the difference between the 'plague' situation is that the plague is framed as an "exceptional" situation: "against an extraordinary evil, power is mobilized," but the panopticon is a "generalizable model of functioning; a way of defining power relations in terms of the everyday life of men" (292). This means that the power relations formed because of the plague, which separates into the "simple binary of life and death" is generalized to our every day lives. This is how power becomes productive.
This is what Foucault means when he says that the Panopticon has a role of amplification
although it arranges power, although it is intended to make it more economic and more effective, it does not so for power itself, nor for the immediate salvation of a threatened society [this would be the situation of the plague] ; its aim is to strengthen social forces--to increase production, to develop the economy, spread education, raise the level of public morality; to increase and multiply" (294)
Therefore, I need to return to Caroline's question today about the "two images of discipline." So the "one extreme" the "discipline blockage, the enclosed institution, established on the edge of society, turned inwards towards negative functions" is the schema of exceptional discipline--discipline is not the "norm" of this society, it is used in exceptional situations, like the plague. Discipline is only used, here as a kind of 'prevention' mechanism--for prisoners or criminals who are then isolated from society. The panoptic society, however has to improve the exercise of power by "making it lighter, more rapid, more effective, a design of subtle coercion for a society to come" (295). The shift is to a generalized state of society, regardless of who you are.
I hope this may help a bit. I'm gonna keep looking back at this text so we can have a good, in depth discussion on thursday. I hope you will too.
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