The Panopticon Vs. Internal Standards

 The panopticon is concpet initially founded by English philosopher Jeremy Bentham and developed by French philosopher Michel Foucault. The panopticon consitutes a rigid vigilance of inmates of a particular establishment or an institution. The constant surveilance dictates that the subjects are under the illusion that they are constantly monitored and hence need to follow the rules or the given guidelines.

Sri Lankans are no strangers to the panopticon frameowork. From the birth, from more personal spaces like families to public spaces likes schools, universities and even the corporate institutes function under the panopticon framework in which the employees or whoever is supposed to adhere to a rigid frame of conduct under the psychological assumption that they are watched or monitored throughout the clock.

Can people be productive in a panopticon? NO. One of the most detrimental traits of a panopticon is the trauma that it gives to a subject with the distortion of sense between private and public spaces. It is no wonder Sri Lankan believe and think it is must to play to their professional identity even when they are not at work. To a certain extent, this is a serious violation of basic human rights as you are pinned down to a particular identity.

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