SOCIETY AND POWER - 31/10/2021“Technology – a child of modern science – is out of humanity’s control, has ceased to serve us, has enslaved us and compelled us to participate in the preparation of our own destruction." (Václav Havel, The Power of the Powerless).
“Those controlled and deceived by modern technology are being transformed into slaves as our modern subservience to technology shares many traits with ancient slavery by creating and resting upon an easily manipulated population.” (Oswald Sobrino, Technology and Human Existence)
“Through the state of constant uncertainty over whether one is being watched, we ultimately internalize the gaze of the guard, and in a sense become a guard over ourself, constantly monitoring, judging, and correcting our behaviour, and eventually thoughts, and attitudes. ” (Jeremy Weissman, The Crowdsourced Panopticon)
The panopticon is a disciplinary concept brought to life in the form of a central observation tower placed within a circle of prison cells. From the tower, a guard can see every cell and inmate but the inmates can't see into the tower. Prisoners will never know whether or not they are being watched.
The State Security Service (Staatssicherheitsdienst), commonly known as the Stasi was the official state security service of the post-war Communist occupied German Democratic Republic (East Germany, GDR). It has been described as one of the most effective and repressive intelligence and secret police agencies to have ever existed.
One of the Stasi's main tasks was spying on the population, primarily through a vast network of citizens turned informants, and fighting any opposition by overt and covert measures, including hidden psychological destruction of dissidents (Zersetzung, literally meaning "decomposition").
Panopticon in Cuba
Masked slave society
