Both Michel Foucault and Truffaut's depiction of a disciplinary society are nearly
identical. But Truffaut's interpretation sees more room for freedom within the
disciplinary society. The difference stems from Foucault's belief that the social control
in disciplinary pervades all elements of life and there is no escape from this type of
control. Foucault's work deals mostly with "power" and his conception of it. Like
Nietzsche, Foucault sees power not as a fixed quantity of physical force, but instead as
a stream of energy flowing through all aspects of society, its power harnesses itself in
regulating the behavior of individuals, the systems of knowledge, a societies
institutions, and every interaction between people.
Foucault in Discipline and Punish, applies this notion of power in tracing the
rise of the prison system in France and the rise of other coercive institutions such as
monasteries, the army, mental asylums, and other technologies. In his work Foucault
exposes how seemingly benign or even reformist institutions such as the modern prison
system (versus the stocks, and scaffolds) are technologies that are typical of the
modern, painless, friendly, and impersonal coercive tools of the modern world. In fact
the success of these technologies stems from their ability to appear unobtrusive and
humane. These prisons Foucault goes on to explain like many institutions in post 1700th
century society isolate those that society deems abnormal. This isolation seeks to attack
the souls of people in order to dominate them similar to how the torture and brutality of
pre 1700th century society sought to dominate the physical bodies of prisoners. In
Foucault's interpretation freedom from the pervasive influence of "power" is impossible.
Because his conception of "power" exists not just in individual institutions of society
like prisons but instead exists in the structure of society and more importantly in
peoples thought systems, escape from social control is impossible. Foucault in the last
chapter talks about how even the reforms in the system have been co-opted to further the
goals of the state. Instead of a lessening of social control Foucault sees that the
technologies change from the wheels and gallows of the 17th century to the disciplinary
society of the 19th century to the emerging carceral city of the future. In this carceral
city the dispersion of power will be complete. The technologies of control will emanate
from all parts of society, "walls, space, institution, rules, and discourse."
Truffaut's interpretation of society and its future is much more upbeat.
Although like Foucault he sees the technologies of the disciplinary society as insidious
social control mechanisms. Truffault depicts the schooling, prison, and family systems as
technologies that seeks to inculcate children, criminals, and subversives in the proper
behavior of society. Trauffaut's film exposes how these mechanisms work. The school seeks
to isolate punish and ostracize children into forming a pliant populace. The family seeks
to enforce the discipline of societies larger moral codes on children. Notice how in the
movie the mother in a seemingly kindly attempt to bond with her child is in fact teaching
him the moral codes of society: running away from home is wrong, school is good, respect
your elders, follow rules, and don't lie. The prison system in the movie seeks to isolate
the deviant members of society classifying them as perverts, neurotic, madmen and in need
of reprogramming and evaluation. These technologies in Truffaut's film are the seat of
power in a society.
Unlike Foucault Truffaut sees power as emanating from these fixed points;
Foucault sees "power" and "control" and flowing through all the vessels of the body of
society. In Truffaut's disciplinary society their is escape from such a world on the
streets of Paris, in interacts with friends, and by running away to the sea or the movie
theater. Truffaut sees escape from power as possible in anarchist like state free of
adults and laws. Truffaut's ideas are similar in this aspect to Sartre who sees the
society can be freed from the grip of cruel power in a socialist utopia. This is in stark
contrast to Foucault who sees escape as impossible. And more importantly Foucault sees
escape as growing more and more difficult as society moves from a disciplinary society to
a society of control.
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