Michael Foucault once said that “visibility is a trap”, which describes the best how panopticon works (Milchman and Rosenberg 18). While Jeremy Bertham’s idea of Panopticon initially concerned only the layout of a prison, the metaphor of his concept shed the light to the methods of power and control in the society. Back in 18th century Bertham proposed to replace physical abuse and torture of inmates by an innovative layout of prison that would allow one watchman to observe all prisoners, which may or may not know that they are observed (Semple 38). Further on, Foucault developed the concept of panopticon broaden a perspective on social structure and power within the society. The idea pursued a humanistic purpose, yet it was technically utopist and emphasized a sophisticated idea of power and control that can be observed in a covert state in the modern time. The idea of panopticon made a lot of philosophers and writers to explore the topic of surveillance, social control, and the reactions of people in the disciplinary situations. Dave Eggers’s “Circle” and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley aimed at highlighting the same notion of panopticon constructing an utopist model of society and dissecting its essence. "Circle" represents the ideas of Foucault's panopticum more effectively than "Brave New World", because the first highlights the methods of power and control more precisely comparing to the second, which shows a vague description of these concepts.
Foucault emphasized that the aim to develop suitable behavior among society members can be attained not through surveillance, but by the concept of panoptic persuading people to agree on the internalization of such a reality (Milchman and Rosenberg 31). In Eggers’s work, company, Circle, manages to impose its view towards transparency among the entire society while seeking only the ability to rule (Eggers 26). In this context, “Brave New World” does not explore the power of observation, rather than shows how a collective societal point of view can affect individual. According to Foucault, the observer relies on the act of monitoring and uses the information about the behaviors he/she sees to use it for the further control (Danaher, Schirato, and Webb 54). Consequently, the more an observer sees, the more powerful she or he becomes. The idea of invisible surveillance and ability to use the information against a person or entity is not new and has been attempted to be implemented numerous times, for example, by the surveillance agencies. Yet, as practice shows, this idea was either unsuccessful or did not last for a long time.
It is more effective to make people to believe it is a right thing, while privacy and secrets to be considered as a lie. In “Circle”, this idea penetrates the entire work, “secrets are lies, sharing is caring, privacy is theft” (Eggers 305). These statements show how illusive the ideas of transparency and social connectivity are. Foucault claimed that the power generated from knowledge of the observer comes in circular way, where information and power strengthen one another. Furthermore, he emphasizes that "by being combined and generalized, they attained a level at which the formation of knowledge and the increase in power regularly reinforce one another in a circular process" (Danaher, Schirato, and Webb 84). In “Brave New World”, Huxley does not show how the representatives of different class gain power from observation and knowledge, as at this point, Huxley’s work tend to be vague (Huxley 23).
While both works explore the same topic, each of them chooses different direction. “Brave New World” is a form of dystopia, where the author analyzes the power of information as the tool of depriving the society from critical thinking and using it as the form of restraint. Huxley claims, “words can be like X-rays if you use them properly–they’ll go through anything; you read and you’re pierced” (Huxley 46). Here, the author uses the idea of panopticon as the ability of the rulers to restrain people from thinking and innovations contrasting with “Circle” that aims to produce as much information as possible by creating a false vision of power in people. Overall, the ideas of panopticon are highlighted better by Eggers, as he incorporated the main essence of the metaphor inside his novel. It was noticed earlier that Bertham considered openness as the main virtue of social construct. In “Circle”, it is also believed to be an advantage, as transparency can make a world a better place. In the modern society, this idea is articulated in the similar manner hypothesizing that society will benefit from shared knowledge and accessible information on anything. In “Brave New World”, the rulers pervert the information to make the society careless and hedonistic. In this model of the world, transparency will be a threat to the power of the Alphas.
One of the ideas of panopticon is the action of observation that puts a fear into people, even though they do not know for sure if they are watched. Hypothetically, this method has to prevent them from doing wrongful things, but in reality, it is used to create the rules of “normal” behavior that would benefit the ruling entity or class. In “Circle”, the company enables people to see everything through small cameras, where people judge for themselves how to treat a person ore react to an event (Eggers 105). In this case, panopticon creates the illusion of power, where people believe they have control over their life and the lives of others. Foucault generated the same reasoning claiming that only the observer has a power, where the people may not know that they are observed. In “Circle”, the society does not take into account that it provides one company with the power to observe their entire life through their devices. In “Brave New World”, the idea with manipulation of the information is the same, yet it differs significantly from the notions highlighted by “Circle”. Huxley focuses his attention on the intrusion to the information rather than observing the citizens, as in this world the members of different class do not interact with each other freely. In Huxley’s world, there is no transparency or free access to information, as it is considered that abundance of irrelevant data and decreasing the value of important knowledge will guarantee the power.
At the same time, both novels proclaim one similar idea that connects to the notion of panopticon. It is the ability of those who have power to make people believe they have control and they love their dependency on power-figures. In “Circle”, people are made to believe that they control the information; in “Brave New World” the society has to love their servitude in order such a hedonistic society will survive. Huxley writes, “a really efficient totalitarian state would be one in which the all-powerful executive of political bosses and their army of managers control a population of slaves who do not have to be coerced, because they love their servitude” (Huxley 79). Foucault claimed that one of the biggest danger for individual not to be repressed by the power, but to be carefully fabricated in it (Milchman and Rosenberg 33). Here, each of the works fulfills the goal of revealing this threat, yet “Circle” remains more sophisticated in translating this idea. Huxley uses old-fashioned methods of showing how power can be pervasive, which is made through the manipulation of information. Eggers utilizes modern means by creating the parallels between surveillance and transparency, where the borderline is almost invisible already.
Foucault warned that if a group of people will gain control over information, the oppression is inevitable (Milchman and Rosenberg 51). “Circle” realized this concept more effectively than “Brave New World”, as Eggers showed the elements of power and control more effectively than Huxley. Overall, the ideas of panopticon are different in each of the novels, while “Circle” reveals the utopists ideas of elimination of privacy by including the figure of observer, “Brave New World” highlights the danger of manipulation of information and inability of people to detect the flaws in the society.
Works Cited
Danaher, Geoff, Tony Schirato, and Jen Webb. Understanding Foucault. St. Leonards, N.S.W.: Allen & Unwin, 2000.
Eggers, Dave. The Circle. San Francisco, CA: McSweeny’s Book, 2013.
Huxley, Aldous L. Brave New World. New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2006.
Milchman, Alan, and Alan Rosenberg. Foucault and Heidegger: Critical Encounters. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2003.
Semple, Janet. Bentham's Prison: A Study of the Panopticon Penitentiary. Oxford: Clarendon, 1993.
