On the Behalf of Equality: Foucault's Concept of Panopticon in Harrison Bergeron

This article explores Foucault's concept of the “panopticon” and the theory of disciplinary power in Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron. The dystopian world in this short story includes state control mechanisms that erode individuality and eliminate free thinking. Foucault's theories reveal how the modern state pacifies and shapes individuals through discipline and surveillance. The citizens are forbidden from both physical and mental superiority. For this reason, they have to wear handicaps, which serve as a panopticon. While imposing these handicaps on citizens as a panoptic device, it is framed as both subjectifying and objectifying them. They play an active role in maintaining the power of the state and are objects in their individuality. In the surveillance society (panopticon), individuals' lifestyles must be within the framework of certain norms and must comply with social norms. Thus, this article discusses the true equality with individual differences and what the outcome may cost when individuals are forced to obey social norms. Following Foucault's ideas of the panopticon and disciplinary power, the story illustrates how power isolates those who do not conform to societal standards in prison to maintain surveillance and control over them. It explores how this structure upholds and enforces authority through strict discipline and a surveillance network. It also discusses how the modern state regards individuals who declare their superiority and rebel against the order, such as Harrison, as a threat to its existence and excludes them from society. In this context, it aims to provide a critique of the governing style of modern societies.