Micro-powers are reversible and never overthrown once and for all

Evidence

Lastly, they are not univocal; they define innumerable points of confrontation, focuses of instability, each of which has its own risks of conflict, of struggles, and of an at least temporary inversion of the power relations. The overthrow of these ‘micro-powers’ does not, then, obey the law of all or nothing; it is not acquired once and for all by a new control of the apparatuses nor by a new functioning or a destruction of the institutions; on the other hand, none of its localized episodes may be inscribed in history except by the effects that it induces on the entire network in which it is caught up. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 74

Categorization

• XREF: The open, contestable, reversible nature of micro-powers contrasts with the panopticon’s seemingly monolithic control — a scene of struggle rather than fixed architecture. — connects to: Power can be physically exercised without resorting to violence or ideology — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 73; Power operates as a diffuse micro-physics not localized in any single institution — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 73; Resistance is internal to power relations, which never totalize — Michel Foucault, Society Must Be Defended, 295
• QUESTION: If micro-powers are never conclusively overthrown, what does that imply for the telescreen’s apparent total dominance in 1984 — is resistance structurally built in?

Related

• Power operates as a diffuse micro-physics not localized in any single institution (similarity 0.82)
• Resistance is internal to power relations, which never totalize (similarity 0.82)
• Power’s proliferation stems from its congenital impotence, not omnipotence (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Power operates as a diffuse micro-physics not localized in any single institution #expands (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 73
• Power can be physically exercised without resorting to violence or ideology #expands (0.80) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 73