Power Benefits Us and Confines Us

This week in class we covered Foucault and we also talked about the Fiero reading on Tuesday.
Foucault's views about power are very interesting.  He emphasizes that power is every where.  In society we live under a society that has a system of laws and are controlled by a higher system of power, which is the government. We mentioned this in class when we talked about the domain of the state and the domain of the individual. First of all, the domain of the state is a higher source of power.  The state controls everything in society. The state is in control of the laws that are set into place. The state is in control of things like taxes and punishment for crimes and other things.  As individuals, we are subject to the power of the state.  We have to oxide by the principles set in place by it.  Foucoult emphasizes the ideal that power is all around us.  We are individuals and we have the right to make choices and govern ourselves.  However when it comes to society as a whole we essentially have to conform to the power of the state.  In class we talked about this when we addressed things that are considered to be abnormal.  We kind of talked about how their is a majority rule when it comes to things.  For example we talked about criminals and how their behavior is unacceptable.  We also talked about our choices and how we are coerced by a system of power.  We used our decision to come to Rhodes and follow the curriculum requirements as an example.  We talked about how the system uses positive incentives to encourage people to follow its rules or principles because they will actually want to follow the rules.

I personally think that Foucaults ideas of power are unique.  I think that I would agree with many of his viewpoints about power.  There is definitely a lot of force behind it.  As individuals, we are forced to do certain things for reasons. For example, we have to abide by laws because if we don't do so, there are negative consequences.  We also perform certain actions because of our beliefs and thoughts. In class we talked about the decision to go to college.  I talked about how, for me, the decision not to go to college was not an option.  For me, this was because of how I had been raised by my parents. Thus, I think that power is something that binds individuals in a way because it forces us to conform to certain standards. We are limited in our actions.

 I think that having a structured system is a positive thing in certain ways. Think about it.  How do people define social values and what is acceptable? We define these things because we live under a system with structure. Structure gives people guidelines for how to live our lives and what choices we make.  I think that it allows us to make decisions easier because we have an organized system set in place and we can make observations based on these things. I think that structure also helps to define the social norms that we create.  On the other hand, the system and force can  be negative because it can limit how we think.  It kind of places us in a box.  If we are used to abiding by certain standards, we may be closed minded when it comes to new ideas of what is acceptable.  Thus the system can cripple us in certain ways.

I would like to read other people's point of view on this post.  There are certainly more questions and ideas that can be addressed about Foucault's views and what I written.  Thanks for reading!