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đŸȘ” The Threshold

Mehmed Ali adopted hidden disciplinary power to make rule tolerable, not humane

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tagsja-picks, xref, deepthinking, category/connection-points
aliases@fahmy_all_1997, loc. 669

2 min read

Mehmed Ali adopted hidden disciplinary power to make rule tolerable, not humane

Evidence

As said above this shift from a system of enforcing order by resorting to a brutal and excessive use of force to a more subtle, distant and impersonal one should not be read as a move to a more enlightened, reformed application of the law. Rather, it testifies to what Foucault calls in his Discipline and Punish a shift from spectacular to representational and finally to disciplinary punishment. What informed this shift was not the humane, rational and progressive ideals of the Enlightenment as much as the need to make the power of the sovereign (in this case Mehmed Ali) tolerable and acceptable to his subjects. For “power is tolerable only on condition that it mask a substantial part of itself.” Hence this shift to what appears as a humane execution of the law was in fact a shift to a more cunning, cynical and hidden kind of power. — Khaled Fahmy, All the Pasha_s Men_ Mehmed Ali, his
, 669

Categorization

Category: Connection Points

  • XREF: Explicitly engages Foucault’s Discipline and Punish framework; connects to the reader’s broader interest in nineteenth-century state-building through surveillance.
  • DEEPTHINKING: The claim that humane-looking reform is actually a more cunning, hidden kind of power inverts the standard progressive narrative of legal ‘enlightenment’ — a paradigm-shifting way to read all supposed humanitarian reforms.
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