Date: Mon, 10 May 2004 03:51:04 -0700
Subject: RE: Panopticon Reversed


"It is ugly to be punishable, but there is no glory in punishing.  Hence that 
double system of 
protection that justice has set up between itself and the punishment it 
imposes.  Those who carry 
out the penalty tend to become an autonomous sector, justice is relieved of 
responsibility for it by 
a bureaucratic concelment of the penalty itself." (Discipline_and_Punish, pp. 
10)

It's a very bad idea to place the tortured body under the spotlight, it 
reverses the roles and make 
the criminal an object of pity or admiration, breaking down solidarity.  
Modern penal justice 
system replaces punishment with the trial and prosecution process as the 
spectacle, it's the 
certainty of punishment (and not the horrifying sovereign power over the body) 
that disciplines.

Politicial Institution presented liberty as "reason" to wage war, "those who 
commit terrorism will 
certainly be punished" -- the war is "legit" as long as the American 
aggression doesn't exceed the 
crime of the terrorists.  You can't have a sovereign government and 
"liberated" lifestyle at the same 
time.

This confirms my subjective view that freedom is a myth; a rosy picture of 
"liberty" is presented to 
public, only because consent is always more useful than coercion.  There is no 
such thing as a war 
for liberty or a war against terrorism; it's a war between Islamic religion 
and Judeo-Christian 
religion.

Just my opinionated 5 cents (due to inflation).

-Cordelia

---------------------------
The belief in truth is precisely madness - Nietzsche
 
I had been mad enough to study reason - Foucault