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.