Panopticon

With the model of self-government Hillsdale College professes to uphold, one might assume the College trusts its students are capable of developing the capacity for such a thing. Furthermore, one would think that Orwellian measures associated with surveillance states do not fit well with the strengthening students’ senses of the responsibilities that come with freedom. Despite all this, there is a real danger that an institution that seeks to promote the exercise of such responsibility is tempted to adopt — with the best of intentions — surveillance measures that had once only been the tools of dictatorships and dystopias. Always with the best of intentions.

In the late 18^th Century, political philosopher Jeremy Bentham came up with what he called Panopticon, a proposal for prison architecture that would allow one guard to monitor a large number of prisoners. The design included a circular, multistory prison with cells ringing the interior, which opened to a guard post in the center. A single guard behind a screen could view any cell at any time, such that no one prisoner would know if he was being watched or not. Bentham believed the possibility of being watched at any time would incentivize and thus inculcate a habit of good behavior, and that it would be a more humane form of incarceration. He imagined the idea could be adapted to hospitals and schools, always with the best of intentions.

Today, Panopticon has become all too real, and even those with no criminal history have been forced, or in some cases have elected out of a sheeplike preference for security theater over freedom, to fill the roles of Bentham’s prisoners. It should not be a surprise to us in the freer world — the United States, western European countries and much of the Americas — that countries like China which call themselves “democratic dictatorships” surveil their citizens mercilessly. China, the second most populous country in the world, has over 700 million surveillance cameras, which translates to one camera for every two Chinese citizens. Everyone is monitored, in realtime. Now, however, this level of distrust seems to have taken root within the country founded not long ago in direct opposition to the overreach of distant tyrants.