Rick's Panopticon

Foucault highlights Bentham's Panopticon, a physical and ideological control, using visibility as a weapon of discipline. Useful in times of great disorder, this mechanism is a form of constant, participatory social surveillance. Over time, control is less and less pertinent. Without any further knowledge, members of society conform to the described norms for fear of disciplinary action- assuming constant observation.

Rick and Morty: Episode two describes Rick's happy place, an entire world designed with the sole purpose for him to hang up his lab coat and relieve himself. Being a genius, Rick has designed a beautiful planet simply so that he may "poop in peace" with a beautiful landscape surrounding him. He is troubled when he finds a broken twig next to his ceramic throne; someone else has used his toilet. After tracking down the alien that defiled his realm, he tries to punish the criminal. Yet the Alien is not frightened by the threat of death, he welcomes it. Undeterred, Rick plans to humiliate his Alien trespasser by programming the toilet to portray thousands of Ricks laughing at a single seated man. Rick's antagonist dies before the mad scientist can get his last laugh. Leaving the hero hollow and alone. With no purpose, Rick sits on the armed ceramic to be ridiculed by hologram copies of himself.

Rick's investigative abilities is an imitation of the power of social surveillance. While his Panopticon toilet is protected, he is a victim of his own 'norms' in the end.

Pre-Class Michel Foucault

Foucault begins with the system of measures taken against the plague in the 17th century: partitioning of space, continuous inspection, and registration. Plague could be stopped with order. He also discusses how Lepers were excluded from society in an attempt to create a pure/utopian society. The technique of supervising and determining the abnormal people in society today comes from the plague. Disciplinary techniques are used as a methods of control over "abnormal" people.

Foucault brings in Jeremy Bentham's panopticon, an architectural and metaphorical structure where "visibility is a trap." This leads to the development disciplinary society as a "society of surveillance" rather than the antiquity society of spectacle. The notion of always being observed is internalized and one conforms to "norm" and is "policed" by their own mind. For example, SnapChat has a feature where you can anonymously track your friends' locations on a map at anytime- creating a permanent visibility. You can see what they are doing according to their bitmoji's- like driving a car, playing golf or sleeping.

Post Class Bourdieu

In class on thursday, I enjoyed trying to define what  “middle-class morality” was. I found it helpful that I was able to try to describe the concept in my own words. This made me feel more comfortable to share my thoughts in the future. After class, I did some digging on what this concept means. While searching online, I found a Prezi by John Kremar that explained what the middle-class morality is all about. In the presentation, middle-class morality was defined to be “ the way a person is expected to behave and think when they are a part of the middle class”(Kremar, 2013).  By looking at this definition, I could easily apply it to what Bourdieu was trying to explain in his essay. These Tv celebrities and hosts are mostly paid to control the minds of the middle class. If we look at the middle class, they are the majority of people that live in America. Therefore, these two-bit celebrities are controlling the ideological mindset of the masses. For example, the Kardashians are making millions and millions of dollars doing just that. This whole family sets our fashion, social, and body trends, that consume the minds of the masses. The concept of individuality is technically stripped away because we are taught to be just like the people in “power” (aka the Kardashians or any other celebrity).
   
With my family being a member of the upper-middle class, I can see myself falling in line with the control of these two-bit celebrities. I feel like beauty standards are what I follow the most. Now with social media, I am always continually trying to find what Kylie Jenner is doing with her make- up to keep with the trend, or I am watching the Kardashian show to see where I should vacation next. By analyzing my behavior, I am almost ashamed that I am stripping away my own identity to fit in our “perfect” society. By studying Bourdieu’s work, I have become enlightened about  the truth, and in the future,  I will become more mindful about how to think about the world around us.

https://prezi.com/0xpm9ugiug0m/middle-class-morality/

Post Blog Bourdieu -RS

Pierre Bordieu takes a critical stance on the TV industry in particular. As he states, TV is "making everything ordinary" and two-dimensional so that there is a lack of depth on mainstream media. In addition, this is especially dangerous with news circulation, as this is a main medium in which people are informed on politics, state affairs, global events, etc. He makes a large statement in saying that TV only confirms what we already know, thus being a form of confirmation bias. Major TV networks are ruled by capital interests as they are largely owned by companies and joint corporations. One of the reasons why I have always loved and stuck by the media site, Democracy Now!, is because they are fully funded by the public and individual donations. In addition, I have come to trust and appreciate groups or public figures based upon their sources of funding. For example, Bernie Sanders receives a large majority of his campaign funding from personal and public donors. Many other Democratic candidates have found this tactic to be beneficial as well. I think that showing how feasible this tactic is helps the public better question and support methods related to financial backing. I think that a lot can be revealed about a figure or organization based upon their corporate affiliations and sources of funding, in the same way that a lot can be revealed about an individual by looking at their shopping history/habits.

In addition, we noted in class that the middle-class is under a lot of pressure to do the "right" thing or make the moral and conscious choice. The middle-class is also very exhausted and drained from their constant work. I think work very accurately defines and characterizes the middle-class, after all. Although I and other students or individuals in my circle are always constantly trying to make the conscious decision (buying organic, not using straws or plastic bags, attending marches, staying informed on candidates etc.), I've come to realize how unfair the system is and how much pressure and exhaustion is put on me and the everyday middle-class. With having to balance jobs, academics, a social life, personal matters, etc. there is a lot of task and moral responsibility put on people who are already working full days. Making informed and conscious choices or upholding civic duty shouldn't be so tasking or laborious. We shouldn't have to go out of our way to have these options. Yes, there is a certain degree of responsibility and initiative for the everyday citizen to take, however, I think that is troubling that such efforts should be so difficult and challenging to access. For example, the U.S. does not give the day off for Voting day, unlike many other nations. Obviously it is a civic duty for each citizen to partake in this process if they are able, yet, it is made harder for people who have a full work day, family obligations, school, etc. I think a large "fix" can be made by holding major corporations accountable. For example, in matters of the environment everyday people are urged to eat organic (more expensive), use reusable containers, stop driving, save water, etc. Yes, one individual's actions make a contribution, but large corporations can make MUCH larger of an impact. Electing leaders and figures who have the power to make more executive and widespread decisions over corporate control is one way in making more effective change. The ones in power are the ones who should be held accountable. I think it's dangerous to blame individual people and that it is more effective to look at the (oftentimes faulty) systems that govern them.


On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. -Renee sang

Post Class Pierre Bourdieu

In the essay, "Introduction: The Aristocracy of Culture," Bourdieu connects taste and culture. Consumers taste for daily products is constructed by their culture and their culture is constructed created by the products they consume. Taste is in relationship to position in class hierarchy. In order to reach as many people (middle class), Bourdieu says TV news "suits everybody because it confirms what they already know and above all leaves their mental structures intact"(254). He says taste for the middle class is framed by the upper class controlled news and "two bit spiritual guides" disseminating ideology in order keep a class hierarchy. Bourdieu says that these guides or "journalists want nothing so much as to be part of the intellectual crowd. No doubt, this structural inferiority goes a long way to explain their tendency toward anti-intellectualism" (255). Newscasters become revered as intellectual sources for the middle class and actual intellectuals become "too smart" to relate the to middle class. Anti-intellectualism is inherently dangerous when rejecting scientific consensus. For example, anti-vaccine parents are putting their children and other children at risk for easily-preventable diseases that have the potential to kill.

Pre-class 11/14 blog -RS

Bourdieu

I think theorist Pierre Bourdieu is bringing about a fair and pertinent point when he notes that there is a type of classist system in terms of people's preferences in everyday culture. The type of things that people choose to engross themselves in---art, movies, literature, news, sports, music, etc.---are all influenced by social hierarchies. In addition, education plays a large role in this system. The way we are educated and exposed to different cultural systems and practices is largely influenced by how and under what system we learn and gain our education. Once again, this is an example in which an institution governs how we think, act, and express ourselves. There are also different codes for certain cultural activities as well. For example, art, theatre, opera, literature etc. has always been associated with being more "cultured" due to its associations with the upper class. Even still, different music tastes (e.g. rap, pop, hip hop versus classical) have associations to their respective social classes. Although all of these forms of "taste" can coexist, issues arise when people try to deem certain tastes to be more cultured (usually due to social class) as opposed to others.

In addition, Bourdieu states that "A work of art has meaning and interest only for someone who possesses the cultural competence, that is, the code, into which it is encoded" (p. 250). In regards to the contemporary art world, I am highly in agreement of this statement. In the contemporary and modern or "high" art world, there is tendency to exclude certain groups and be inaccessible to much of the population. Especially with the rise of conceptual art, there has been more of an inaccessibility issue with artist's creating "out-of-touch" works and more accusations of people being "art snobs" or in the "cultural elite." Much of the literature on art and theory as well has included exclusive language that is not necessarily accessible to all people. It is language that is confusing, winding, and verbose, that can daunt certain populations from approaching. I think that there has recently been more effort to make artworks that are accessible to all groups, however, the art world has a long way to go in liberating art and becoming an inclusive environment.


On my honor, I have not given, nor received, nor witnessed any unauthorized assistance on this work. -Renee Sang

Post Class 11/12

In class today, I got an aha moment about myself and my contribution to society. When we were talking about ideology and why it matters to us as a society, I started to think about my individuality. When Dr. Cummings said that our individuality was at stake, I got a little bit nervous and began to think about how my individuality is constructed due to the ideologies that grasp us. While thinking about this dark truth, I started to wonder how I could change this narrative. I know in class, Dr. Cummings mentioned that once you enter a system, you can make a change. Through that statement, it made me think about ways that I can critically think about the ideologies that are around me. I believe, as CMC majors, we are given the tools to think critically about the world around us. To make a change in my society today, I can use what I learn in these classes to lend a critical lens in my future job. Thinking about how I can potentially change our societal views is amazing because I feel like, within this, I can start to gain my individuality back.

Also, during the class, I enjoyed listening to Noam Chomsky. Even though I couldn’t quite understand the historical events that he was talking about during the interview, I could still see the concepts that we learn in class in action during that historical period. For example, I remember when Chomsky was talking about the Italians and how they were slowly conforming to the ideologies during that time (“the whomps are un-whomping themselves”). Looking at Chomsky’s statement, I quickly saw this as the “other” conforming to the ideological state of society. I am proud of myself that I am finally able to identify different theories to real-world situations. At the start of the semester, I thought I would never be able to do this, so I am so proud of where I am at right now