The Panopticon

In my political science class, we had a great discussion on the term panopticon. A lot of my classmates gave their personal views and opinions on the subject. By establishing an effective panopticon, there has to be some certain level of fear in the citizens. I'm not saying that it has to be complete fear in the citizens of a state or country for the government to control and monitor every one's behavior according to their laws, but there has to be some fear for the citizens to stay in line and abide by the rules. I believe that the concept of pounding citizens with a little bit of fear is a good thing to keep the government from being over thrown. A lot of people believe that pounding the citizens with fear is the wrong thing to do and it's liable to cause a revolution. If the citizen are scared to break the law, they are going to be even more afraid to over throw the government. If the punishment is severe, there is going to be lots of order and control in that certain area. Many people are going to despise the government because of the harsh and crucial punishments, but they are going to have high level of fear and respect for the laws. On the other hand, if a government is too nice and lenient, people are going to run over your legal system because they are being acquitted of serious charges and that is going to lead for every one to think that their actions are not going to have consequences, which is going to cause a lot of law breaking. Proper consequences allow people to think thoroughly about their actions. No severe punishment is sincerely going to lead to a revolt. Fear is needed to an average not major extent.

Generation Gap

In my political science class, my classmates were talking about many clashes of civilizations in their household, in the world, and many more. Many people's parents don't totally agree on their son or daughters beliefs because they were brought up differently. My sister's husband grandfather sincerely hates my beliefs on the Vietnam war. I believe that it was totally unnecessary and that the United states were wasting their time in Vietnam trying to train the Vietnam soldiers so that United States soldiers could return home, but that sincerely didn't work. My grandfather-in-law argues me down to the ground every time he sees me. He really hates my opinion on the whole situation because he thinks I'm a young punk and don't know what is the basis of the United States history of war. My point is that the generation gap is such a problem facing among the same civilizations and different civilizations. In a stretch of time, many things can be changed. China is,what i would say, expanding. They are not losing their culture. They are expanding and opening up to new things. Many people generations before me would disagree, but it's my opinion and my view upon things as i see it in today's world.

Proportional Representation

In my political science class, my instructor brought up a very interesting question concerning whether or not should the United States have proportional representation. I think that we(considering I'm a citizen of the United States) should not have that type of system. People in the same party can barely agree on policies together, so i doubt if many parties can come together and agree on serious issues. With a system like proportional representation, it strongly involves a coalition and I sincerely don't see that happening now-a-days. I don't think we should have the dominance of just two parties neither though. I believe the United States focus should be on developing a new effective system of democracy. The people of the country should severely decide on many decisions, but then there is the fear that the people don't know how to accurately decide on critical policies in the country. My question is what the use of a democracy if the people don't get what they want and need? The main focus of the government is to serve it's people and make life more comfortable for the citizens. How is that true if we cant decide on policies? Many people don't understand that an administration is not going to be perfect in every aspect and that they are going to fail every once in a while, but I truly believe we should consider a new format of government that is more appealing to more audiences.