PANOPTICON in MICRONESIA
The panopticon was first introduced in the Utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham, as a means by which an institution could be created with the greatest measure of utility, but the least amount of work. The panopticon design involved a single master/guard/teacher/authority located in a centralized position by which that one person could oversee the whole area, which was sprawled in a circle around the overseer, each individual room, holding one person, unable to see each other or the master. The panopticon was considered the first step to the development of "self policement." The subject's uncertainty of the master's gaze and the possibility of his policement of their activities, soon begins to manifest in a form of self policement. This is where the subject begins guarding and controlling his or her own activity, whether he believes the master is watching or not.
The essence of this is further conceptualized by Karl Marx, and later popularized by Michel Foucault. In David Hanlon’s text Remaking Micronesia, he is most concerned with the panopticon in Marxist/ Ricardian terms of economy and value, and the strict idea of time which such a discursive state requires. The panopticon, regulates time, makes each worker into a value or a resource, by his staying within the applied limits of such time. The Foucauldian model may be seen applicable, primarily to Guam, and the geo-political state created by the Organic Act and military presence.
In Micronesia in the past century, we see the introduction of "time as panopticon." Capitalism requires a sense of time not indigenous to Micronesia, or most non-industrialized nations. Capitalism is meant to function as a well-oiled machine, producing something with the least amount of work, as fast as possible, but more importantly each cog in the machine must run on time, within the limits of the machine. People function as these cogs, and in the absence of a gigantic network of kaizen, their must be self policement in order for Capitalism to work.
There was a fear among the Navy and other Western officials, and this fear is not unsubstantiated, that Micronesians could not function properly in a capitalist economy, since the necessary network of behavior conditioned on a system of rewards/penalties/standards/ and quantitative measurements did not exist.
Panopticonism is not limited to anywhere by definition, it is pervasive, in all places in all forms, where a single power controls behavior. On Guam, the nature of the dynamic is particularly interesting. The United States is our governing body. Although it is rarely said, the Congress of the United States has total and complete control over our political government, yet little local control. The panopticon of power is the Organic Act and subsequent loyalty to the U.S. for the 'liberation' of Guam in WWII. These two objects keep Guam in accordance with American ideals, even at the local level. The interesting aspect of this panopticon is its affect on 'quality' or 'esteem.' Because of this self policement along 'American' lines, the association of power is equated with quality and esteem. Significant complexities regarding the nature of one's identification with culture and language can be attributed to this false connection, in which many post-war parents tired to increase their children's esteem or quality by raising them in the American way, rather then the Chamorro way. A panopticon attempts at modification of behavior in the context of time. Prison were literally designed with this "center eye" concept. In the Stockholm syndrome effect popularized in the '70s regarding Patricia Hearst, in which the hostage begins identifying with her kidnapper and acting on his cause is one interesting outcome of the metaphoric panopticon.
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