Panopticism. Task 1

CCTV surveillance is the most controversial panoptic presence in modern society. Statistics show there is one security camera for every 14 people in the UK today. Critics warn that the Orwellian nightmare has arrived, pointing out that only 3% of crimes were solved by CCTV in 2008 so using panoptic methods to ‘watch over’ us are failing. Support for CCTV surveillance comes from the police, who claim policing Britain today without it is impossible given the major increase in violent crime and political terrorism over the past 25 years. They affirm that ‘it automises and disindividualises power’.

Do the potential security and public safety gains outweigh the cost to privacy? Surely as surveillance grows, privacy shrinks. But the effect of heavy surveillance is ‘polyvalent in its applications’ and goes beyond privacy issues. Foucault said that panopticism’s ‘strength is that it never intervenes’ but it is already creating public insecurity by transforming society in other ways. For example, the trend of reluctance to aid people in distress. Why get involved when watching cameras can deal with other people’s problems? This ‘self-regulation’ creates ‘docile bodies’: being watched at all times, especially when doing nothing wrong, creates a feeling of not being free.