Brook (an old prisoner, a librarian who spent most of his life in Shawsank prison) was a victim of Shawsank. He clearly felt a sense of social isolation when he got out of prison - which led to his life hanging himself.
"In prison he is an important person. He's an educated man. Outside he is nothing. He was just a former inmate with arthritis of the hands. Maybe he can't get a library card even if he tries." Red said.
This symptom of alienation appears in the silhouette of Catholic monasteries for a long time. A panoptic mechanism that produces discipline is applied to support the vision and mission of a religious community. It is not only European-style architecture that leaves a panoptic trail, but also patterns of life that have been systematized idealsm of authority. Then, does this kind of formation model really make good humanist missionaries?
Panopticon
Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher and social theorist in the mid-1700s, invented a social control mechanism that would become a comprehensive symbol for modern authority and discipline in the western world: a prison system called the Panopticon.
The basic principle for the design, which Bentham first completed in 1785, was to monitor the maximum number of prisoners with the fewest possible guards and other security costs. The layout (which is depicted below) consists of a central tower for the guards, surrounded by a ring-shaped building of prison cells.
The panoptic method guarantees intensive supervision and enforcement of discipline that can be carried out more easily. The heart of the panoptic mechanism lies in its architectural form. On the edge was a circular building which were prison cells with two open windows reinforced by iron bars: one led inward so that it was clearly visible from the watchtower located in the center of the circle of the building. Other open windows are directed outward so that the light illuminates the cell. So that all the prisoners' movements are clearly monitored. Prisoners do not know who or how many are watching. They only know that he is being watched.
The effect of this panoptic system causes the prisoner to have an awareness of being always under surveillance or in a permanent visible situation. The system allows surveillance to be carried out on an irregular basis, but the effect on consciousness is the feeling of being constantly watched. Panoptic is a form of supervision that makes it possible to obtain compliance and order by minimizing actions that are difficult to calculate or cannot be predicted. Supervision is carried out discontinuously, the effect is continuous.
Discipline and Norm
Discipline and norms are two different concepts, although they are sometimes related. Norms are rules that defend the integrity of shared values as a result of self-reference and group mechanisms. Norms allow comparison. Norms always represent the needs and interests of the public, in contrast to discipline.
The goal of discipline is the body: discipline to correct and educate. This requires comparison and individualization. Prison became a discipline room, because behind that wall, man-making was being carried out. Norms are studied more systematically. For Foucault, discipline is not synonymous with a particular institution or apparatus: it is a technology. So that for him sovereignty is not an agreement between individuals but the power to shape individuals.
Discipline can be administered by specialized institutions (prisons), or by institutions that use discipline as a means to an end (hospitals, schools, or teaching houses), or by agencies that use discipline as a means to further strengthen and organize power ( family, military, psychiatric homes) or by officials who use discipline as the principle for the functioning of the organization (administration since Napoleonic times), or by state officials who must ensure public discipline (police).
Panopticon Of Monastery
Is there a Penoptikon behind the monastery walls? Â Yes. Â Panoptics are inscribed in the location and architectural style of the buildings. Suppose; Â high walls with shards of sharp glass on them, the location of the rectory near the entrance which is made higher like a watchtower, and formators rooms on the lower floors which are deliberately placed near the entrance for the sake of supervision. Â With or without a supervisor to watch, shadows of fear are almost always there.
In seminary-level formation houses, the Panoptikon's tension has been refined its meaning in the rules of religious life pattern. Â For example: rules regarding the prohibition of leaving the monastery complex without the permission of the formator, coming to the chapel on time, this prohibition, that prohibition, etc.
This method is not 100% wrong. Â Rules are made to ensure the regularity of all community activities. Â Each rule has specific formative targets. Â Without violence and coercion. Â But can community authorities, such as the superior, ensure that the students following the rules really departs from an awareness of proper formative interests? Â Or is the reflection just stucked in the sense of being watched and punished?
Who knows? Â The Panoptikon does leave a long trail of obedience and fear, but it doesn't guarantee change. Â There is no room for freedom for its members to dare to act at the same time be responsible for every situation. Â Then there arises a sense of distrust which leads to suspicion and hypocrisy. Â The humans will not be able to be independent.
 "This place is funny, at first you hate it, then you get used to it. Time after time you get more and more dependent. It's called institutionalized."- Red
Bibliography
Haryatmoko. Membongkar Rezim Kepastian. Yogyakarta: Kanisius, 2016.
Sheridan, Connor, "Foucault, Power and the Modern Panopticon". Senior Teses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2016.Trinity College Digital Repository. Â (http://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/548)
Bentham, Jeremy, and Miran Bozovic. The Panopticon Writings. London: Verso, 1995. Print.
Chris Philo, Hester Parr, and Nicola Burns. "The Rural Panopticon". Journal of Rural Studies 51 (2017) 230-239. (journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jrurstud)
