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.