In his essay, "Panopticism", Focault describes a town that becomes more orderly and discipline through chaos, in the form of disease. The people of the town are always being accounted for and cannot move from their home unless they are a guard or appointed official. There's only one doctor allowed to give remedy to the sick, and he only has permission to tend to the needs of certain people that the magistrate allows him to. Ultimately, the magistrate has the power to let the sick die if he so chooses. Then, Focault describes this concept in one building, the Panopticon. It allows one person to watch all of the inhabitants, who are separated from each other, at once, but they cannot see him . Focault shows how the knowledge of someone watching a person intimidates and controls them in a way that the inhabitants will behave because they know they are watched. He relates power and knowledge in this utopia to show that more order can come to society with an understanding that people are always being watched.
The infected town described by Focault undertook many of the precautions and mindsets as the Puritans did when they settled in New England. The infected town closed off all ways out and into the city. Even individual homes were closed off and weren't to be left or else a person would receive the punishment of death. Purification took place without leaving the town and with order. This physical purification is much like the purification and mindset of the Puritans. They viewed the outside world and Native Americans as evil, so they built up a wall around their city to separate themselves. Purification took place within a person, so that the community as a whole would be pure. They were advised not to leave the community so that they didn't have contact with evil, but they were allowed to leave in order to extend the boundaries of the community, purifying more of their evil surroundings.
How does the Panopticon work in society, if each individual isn't separate from each other because they continually live in contact with each other?
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