British naval discipline debates of 1797 mirrored Egypt’s shift toward representational control
Evidence
This shift to more “representational” types of control and surveillance was not unique to the Egyptian army. In Europe of the eighteenth century this gradual realization that punishment “should strike the soul rather than the body” is best shown in the debates surrounding British naval discipline that followed the mutinies of 1797. Representative of the new voices of skepticism are the works of Philip Patton who wrote a number of pamphlets criticizing, among other things, the regime of punishment and the system of discipline applied in the Royal Navy. “Whatever may be the influence of [fear],” he wrote, “it has been found insufficient to produce concord … and it can never procure unanimity in arduous situations which integrity and the social virtues tend directly to establish in all cases whatever.” — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his…, 705
Categorization
Category: Connection Points
- XREF: Links to the reader’s British Lords interest; also parallels Foucault’s panopticism literature.