Panopticon: Surveillance, Freedom and Fear

You are alone in a dark cell. You are fearful because you know that you are being watched, but you do not know who is watching you or when you are being watched. You are suddenly conscious of every move you make because you are aware that someone is monitoring every inhale, every exhale, and every little aspect of your life. This is the concept of Jeremy Bentham’s “Panopticon.”

Created by Jeremy Bentham, the Panopticon is a structure consisting of a central watchtower surrounded by dozens of prison cells arranged in a circle. The watchman in the watchtower is able to clearly see the activity of everyone in every prison cell, but the prisoners are unable to see the watchman, causing all of the prisoners to assume that they are under constant

Although they claim that the mass surveillance will make America safer due to the potential prevention of terrorism, it does not have the power to entirely prevent all acts of terrorism. The issue is much more complex than simply tracking phone calls and Internet communications to prevent terrorism, and the National Security Agency has never successfully intercepted any major terrorist attack on the U.S. For example, during World War II, the U.S. government placed Japanese-Americans in internment camps in order to protect the American people. The only “crime” was that the people placed in the camps were of Japanese ancestry, even though they were American citizens, many of whom had never even been to Japan. Life in the internment camps was very harsh, and the government continued to have control over these innocent people, as any attempt to escape the camp would result in being shot. These camps acted as a control mechanism to “protect the people,” much like the Panopticon, and showed that the liberty of the people was determined by the

Mere “suspicion” is enough evidence for the government to add a person to the No Fly List, and the List also has many mistakes, leading many innocent people to be wrongly accused of being a terrorist. Although it is unknown just how many innocent people are on this List, it is easy to get on the List and extremely difficult and time-consuming to get off of the List, especially for minorities. Therefore, with very little evidence or none at all, the government can swiftly confiscate the liberty of an innocent person, causing nearly impossible obstacles for them to travel or purchase a gun for self-defense