Panopticon Quotes

“There was this philosopher-slash-historian called Foucault, who wrote about how society is like this legendary prison called panopticon. In the panopticon, you might be underconstant observation, except you can never be sure whether someone is watching or not, so you wind up following the rules anyway."
"But how do you know who's a watcher and who's a prisoner?"...
"That's the point. Even the watchers are prisoners.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“The individual, floating, but held on a leash like a dog, like an eye popping out of its socket, hanging on the end of its optic nerve, scanning the horizon through 180 degrees but not sending back any images—a disembodied panoptical terminal, runaway organ of a species of mutants.”
― Jean Baudrillard, Cool Memories

“Whoever can pierce your privacy can humiliate you and disrupt your relationships at will. No one (except perhaps a tyrant) has a private life that can survive public exposure by hostile directive.”
― Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century - Graphic Edition

“Well, Mr. Illiterate Jock, let me enlighten you. There was this philosopher-slash-historian called Foucault, who wrote about how society is like this legendary prison called the panopticon. In the panopticon, you might be under constant observation, except you can never be sure whether someone is watching or not, so you wind up following the rules anyway.”
“But how do you know who’s a watcher and who’s a prisoner?” I asked, pulling into the empty parking lot.
“That’s the point. Even the watchers are prisoners. Come on, let’s go on the swings.”
― Robyn Schneider, The Beginning of Everything

“Old news: Russia is carnivorous.---New news: now carnivorous beyond its borders.

Sort-of-new news: this country never stopped being carnivorous.---America's eye, more technologically avian, looks into every home.---News: we might need a different word than home.”
― Olga Livshin, A Life Replaced: Poems with Translations from Anna Akhmatova and Vladimir Gandelsman

“Isn’t it hilarious the way conservatives rail against the Surveillance State, yet worship the Cosmic Peeping Tom that is watching everyone 24/7? Seriously, hasn’t “God” got better things to do with his time than record the bad words of the human species on miserable little planet Earth? Could the concept of “God” be made any more trivial and pathetic? “God” has been reduced to a cosmic policeman who does nothing but pound the beat, listing everyone’s sins in his creepy, autistic little notebook. When we become Gods, you can be sure we won’t be glorified shopping mall security guards with our cameras trained on everyone all the time, recording all of their “bad words”.”
― Thomas Stark, Extra Scientiam Nulla Salus: How Science Undermines Reason

“La fantasía de seguridad que tiene el domador con su látigo, sin darse cuenta de que al igual que el tigre o el león que cree controlar, está atrapado tras barrotes. Si la fiera lo desea, si en verdad intenta merendarse a su captor, no habrá látigo que lo detenga. Y allí, el domador aprenderá que los barrotes también lo encierran.”
― Byron Rizzo, El Gran Premio Literario

“Government surveillance is a blatant violation of our fundamental right to privacy, an intrusion into the sacred space where personal thoughts and actions unfold. Beyond its legal ramifications, the emotional toll is profound, eroding the very fabric of trust that binds citizens to their government. This unwarranted scrutiny transforms society into a panopticon, where individuals feel perpetually observed, stifling genuine self-expression and fostering an atmosphere of fear. The notion that constant surveillance is necessary for security undermines the principles of democracy, as it sets a dangerous precedent, sacrificing essential liberties in the name of an elusive safety that comes at the cost of our collective freedom.”
― James William Steven Parker