
			Social Control

          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.
 

