"Our Disciplines Discipline us"

The title of this weeks blog is a phrase spoken by our Professor some time ago while discussing Michel Foucoults' "System of Objects". We discussed how as humans we create various disciplines such as psychology, biology, and an infinite list of -ology's in order to maintain order in society. We use these disciplines to categorize one another as normative and non-normative. It ties into Sir Francis Bacons' theory that "Knowledge is Power" except in a more sinister way. Those who realize that knowledge is power have created and perpetuated these disciplines to have that power over everyone else by establishing the norms that society must adhere to. These discourses are employed to maintian order and with them we monitor each other through power relations because we have been taught to internalize what is right and wrong (Professor Wexler). I noted this theme as we watched the documentary about the eccentric Slavoj Zizek. One of the quotes that stuck out the most was when he said "We feel free because we lack the very language to articulate our own unfreedom". I think this quote encapsulates Foulcouts argument that our ideologies and disciplines trap us in a mindset in  which we genuinely believe that we are free when in reality we are simply playing the game invented by those in power.

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