way the people in power wantedthem to act. People became afraid to act in a way that might make people think that theywere odd, so they gladly acted like everyone else and didn’t cause any trouble. In such aprocess, the one in power usually isn’t a conscious factor in an individual’s process of selfnormalization, due to the fact that they make themselves invisible and instill their norms insubtle ways. This is a prime example of panopticism, a theory developed by JeremyBentham. In panopticism, the people govern, or normalize themselves, because they neverknow if the people in power are watching them. It turns the society into an orderly,mechanized, productive group. It is much easier to “do the right thing”, rather than riskthe chance of getting punished by government. The government scare the people so thatthey don’t misbehave. But you never really know if they are watching you or not, so youassume that they are for the majority of the time. This makes the people in power invisibleto the common citizen. They don’t know exactly who is governing them, but they knowthey are there. This concept worked very well, as it is still happening today. We don’tneed the government to teach us how to act because we do it ourselves, and to each other.We are always very willing to point out a person who acts or looks different from us. Inhomes across America, children are being taught how to act and fit in with the rest ofsociety. Everytime a child is born they are put through the process, and they then grow upwith the same general ideas that their parents had. The best example of disciplinary power in work are in the incidents thatoccurred at Waco, Texas. In this specific engagement, the government really did a goodjob of pulling the wool over the eyes of America. A group of people who believed in arare from of religion, were put under torture much like some described by Foucault. Thebureau of Alcohol, T...
