Possible Introduction/Summary... maybe

Our society has come a long way from monarchial rule in which one figure had all the power. Power still exists in present times, but now it lies in knowledge, images, and the connections between individuals. Has our society really grown from this shift in power though?  In his article “Panopticism”, Michel Foucault describes the Panopticon, a building with a large tower in the center and individual cells around its periphery, and how its architectural composition allows for inmates to always be visible without knowing if they are being watched at any specific time. He explains that this makes the Panopticon a disciplinary mechanism that takes power from a single individual and spreads it through to the relations between the observer and the observed. Foucault argues that this disciplinary mechanism can be used to make individuals more efficient members of society whether it is a worker, student, soldier, or criminal. This is why factories, schools, barracks, and prisons all have the same architectural design. To John Berger, power lies in the image. He believes that an image has power when it links the past and the present, allowing individuals to better understand the relationship of social status between the painter and the subjects. In his article “Ways of Seeing”, he argues that reproduction has made art available and valueless, causing images to lose power. When an image becomes powerless, its link to history becomes insubstantial, and the past becomes obscured or mystified. Kanye West’s song “POWER” expresses his belief that no single race should have power over another in the twenty first century. The video shows West as a pharaoh surrounded by a harem of lighter skinned females and being attacked by lighter skinned warriors with swords while a single sword hangs above his head. Kanye uses images to portray the struggles in gaining success when power lies in racial relations. All of these texts refer to the presence of power lying in the connections between individuals, and they convey that it is important to understand history in order to improve our society; however, none of the texts discuss what will become of power relations in the future. Does technology alter where power lies? I believe that technology effects power relations by allowing individuals to observe others through social networking and allowing individuals to reproduce and manipulate images and information. Technology disestablishes disciplinary power which socially separates our society.


   and then I will discuss how facebook makes people both observers and the observed whoch gets rid of the power relations. There is also cyber bullying because no power relations are present. This makes our society morally inefficient. Then I can discuss things like photo editing programs and wikipedia which lets people post possibly false information. People manipulate images and take away from the power the images have.