Social Control Essays - Political Philosophy, Michel Foucault

Social Control Essays - Political Philosophy, Michel Foucault Social Control Both Michel Foucault and Truffaut's depiction of a disciplinary society are nearly identical. But Truffaut's interpretation sees more room for freedom within the disciplinary society. The difference stems from Foucault's belief that the social control in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there is no escape from this type of control. Foucault's work deals mostly with "power" and his conception of it. Like Nietzsche, Foucault sees power not as a fixed quantity of physical force, but instead as a stream of energy flowing through all aspects of society, its power harnesses itself in regulating the behavior of individuals, the systems of knowledge, a societies institutions, and every interaction between people. Foucault in "Discipline and Punish", applies this notion of power in tracing the rise of the prison system in France and the rise of other coercive institutions such as monasteries, the army, mental asylums, and other technologies. In his work Foucault exposes how seemingly benign or even reformist institutions such as the modern prison system (versus the stocks, and scaffolds) are technologies that are typical of the modern, painless, friendly, and impersonal coercive tools of the modern world. In fact the success of these technologies stems from their ability to appear unobtrusive and humane. These prisons Foucault goes on to explain like many institutions in post 1700th century society isolate those that society deems abnormal. This isolation seeks to attack the souls of people in order to dominate them similar to how the torture and brutality of pre-1700th century society sought to dominate the physical bodies of prisoners. In Foucault's interpretation freedom from the pervasive influence of "power" is impossible. Because his conception of "power" exists not just in individual institutions of society like prisons but instead exists in the structure of society and more importantly in peoples thought systems, escape from social control is impossible. Foucault in the last chapter talks about how even the reforms in the system have been co-opted to further the goals of the state. Instead of a lessening of social control Foucault sees that the technologies change from the wheels and gallows of the 17th century to the disciplinary society of the 19th century to the emerging carceral city of the future. In this carceral city the dispersion of power will be complete. The technologies of control will emanate from all parts of society, "walls, space, institution, rules, and discourse." Truffaut's interpretation of society and its future is much more upbeat. Although like Foucault he sees the technologies of the disciplinary society as insidious social control mechanisms. Truffault depicts the schooling, prison, and family systems as technologies that seeks to inculcate children, criminals, and subversives in the proper behavior of society. Trauffaut's film exposes how these mechanisms work. The school seeks to isolate punish and ostracize children into forming a pliant populace. The family seeks to enforce the discipline of societies larger moral codes on children. Notice how in the movie the mother in a seemingly kindly attempt to bond with her child is in fact teaching him the moral codes of society: running away from home is wrong, school is good, respect your elders, follow rules, and don't lie. The prison system in the movie seeks to isolate the deviant members of society classifying them as perverts, neurotic, madmen and in need of reprogramming and evaluation. These technologies in Truffaut's film are the seat of power in a society. Unlike Foucault Truffaut sees power as emanating from these fixed points; Foucault sees "power" and "control" and flowing through all the vessels of the body of society. In Truffaut's disciplinary society their is escape from such a world on the streets of Paris, in interacts with friends, and by running away to the sea or the movie theater. Truffaut sees escape from power as possible in anarchist like state free of adults and laws. Truffaut's ideas are similar in this aspect to Sartre who sees the society can be freed from the grip of cruel power in a socialist utopia. This is in stark contrast to Foucault who sees escape as impossible. And more importantly Foucault sees escape as growing more and more difficult as society moves from a disciplinary society to a society of control.

Conjugating Spanish Indicative Imperfect Verbs

Conjugating Spanish Indicative Imperfect Verbs As one of Spanishs two simple past tenses, the imperfect indicative has a conjugation that is essential to learn. It is the verb form used most often to describe conditions as they existed in the past, to provide background to events, and to describe habitual actions. Using Estudiar as an Example Conjugation As with some other conjugation forms, the imperfect indicative forms are made by removing the infinitive ending of the verb (-ar, -er or -ir) and replacing it with an ending that indicates who is performing the action of the verb. For example, the infinitive form of the verb that means to study is estudiar. Its infinitive ending is -ar, leaving the stem of estudi-. To say I was studying, add -aba to the stem, forming estudiaba. To say you were studying (singular informal), add -abas to the stem, forming estudiabas. Other forms exist for other persons. (Note: In this lesson, the forms was studying, was learning and so on are used to translate the imperfect indicative. Other translations also could be used, such as used to study or even studied. The translation used depends on the context.) The endings are quite different for verbs that end in -er and -ir, but the principle is the same. Remove the infinitive ending, then add the appropriate ending to the remaining stem. List of Conjugations for the Imperfect Tense The following chart shows the conjugations for each of the three infinitive types. The added endings for each verb are indicated in boldface. The pronouns, often not needed in sentences, are included here for clarity. -Ar verbs using lavar  (to clean) as an example: yo lavaba (I was cleaning)tà º lavabas (you were cleaning)à ©l/ella/usted lavaba (he was cleaning, she was cleaning, you were cleaning)nosotros/nosotras lavbamos (we were cleaning)vosotros/vosotras lavabais (you were cleaning)ellos/ellas/ustedes lavaban (they were cleaning, you were cleaning) -Er verbs using aprender (to learn) as an example: yo aprendà ­a (I was learning)tà º aprendà ­as (you were learning)à ©l/ella/usted aprendà ­a (he was learning, she was learning, you were learning)nosotros/nosotras aprendà ­amos (we were learning)vosotros/vosotras aprendà ­ais (you were learning)ellos/ellas/ustedes aprendà ­an (they were learning, you were learning) -Ir verbs using escribir (to write) as an example: yo escribà ­a (I was writing)tà º escribà ­as (you were writing)à ©l/ella/usted escribà ­a (he was writing, she was writing, you were writing)nosotros/nosotras escribà ­amos (we were writing)vosotros/vosotras escribà ­ais (you were writing)ellos/ellas/ustedes escribà ­an (they were writing, you were writing) As you may notice, the -er and -ir verbs follow the same pattern in the imperfect indicative. Also, the first- and third-person singular forms (the I and he/she/it/you forms) are the same. Thus estudiaba could mean I was studying, he was studying, she was studying or you were studying. If the context doesnt otherwise indicate, a pronoun or subject noun is used before the verb in such cases to indicate who is performing the action. Irregular Verbs Only three verbs (and the verbs derived from them, such as prever) are irregular in the imperfect tense: Ir (to go): yo iba (I was going)tà º ibas (you were going)à ©l/ella/usted iba (he was going, she was going, you were going)nosotros/nosotras à ­bamos (we were going)vosotros/vosotras ibis (you were going)ellos/ellas/ustedes iban (they were going, you were going) Ser (to be): yo era (I was)tà º eras (you were)à ©l/ella/usted era (he was, she was, you were)nosotros/nosotras à ©ramos (we were)vosotros/vosotras erais (you were)ellos/ellas/ustedes eran (they were, you were) Ver (to see): yo veà ­a (I was seeing)tà º veà ­as (you were seeing)à ©l/ella/usted veà ­a (he was seeing, she was seeing, you were seeing)nosotros/nosotras veà ­amos (we were seeing)vosotros/vosotras veà ­ais (you were seeing)ellos/ellas/ustedes veà ­an (they were seeing, you were seeing) Sample Sentences: Llamà ³ a la policà ­a mientras yo compraba drogas. (She called the police while I was buying drugs.)Asà ­ vestà ­amos hace 100 aà ±os. (This is how we dressed 100 years ago.)Se saturaba el aire con olores. (The air was saturated with odors.) ¿Quà © hacà ­an los famosos antes de convertirse en estrellas? (What did the famous people do before they became stars?)Estaba claro que no querà ­ais otra cosa. (It was clear you didnt want another thing.)  Creo que todos eran inocentes. (I believe all were innocent.)En Buenos Aires comprbamos los regalos de Navidad. (We bought Christmas gifts in Buenos Aires.)Los indà ­genas vivà ­amos en un estado de infrahumanidad. (We indigenous people lived a state of subhumanity.)