Foucault and the Plague - how useful are is ides???

Question

How useful are Foucault’s idea of disciplinary power in helping us to understand responses to plague in early modern (and/or modern) Europe ?

Answer 1

Corkscrew says it succinctly. Not only do the powerholders produce discourses to control us (see Foucault's ideas on madness and sexuality) but our responses to those controls in turn form social ideologies and realities.

Today, for example, one could talk about a discourse of 'the terrorist Muslim plague' propagated by the US government in order to be perceived as the saviours of the world, to facilitate invasion of other countries and to justify its status as freedom fighter. The public's response to these messages leads to racial division. This is perhaps an extreme argument but illustrates the point well.

Answer 2

Foucault's ideas of disciplinary power are key in understanding how individuals will self discipline fearing they are being watched. I know he references the plague, but more important is his ideas of the panopticon and the panoptic gaze.

Essentially, it is the same thing as big brother watching. Do you curtail your activities, or change your behavior based on the idea that you might be seen...?

If that is the case, which clearly it is, then Foucault is right. We amend our behavior and discipline ourselves to act in a way that is acceptable.

Answer 3

Corkscrew is spot on with his answer. Another way of looking at it is 'it matters not what the censor does to what I have written but to what I may have written'