Modern penality’s ideal is endless observation rather than spectacular punishment

Evidence

The extreme point of penal justice under the Ancien Régime was the infinite segmentation of the body of the regicide: a manifestation of the strongest power over the body of the greatest criminal, whose total destruction made the crime explode into its truth. The ideal point of penality today would be an indefinite discipline: an interrogation without end, an investigation that would be extended without limit to a meticulous and ever more analytical observation, a judgement that would at the same time be the constitution of a file that was never closed, the calculated leniency of a penalty that would be interlaced with the ruthless curiosity of an examination, a procedure that would be at the same time the permanent measure of a gap in relation to an inaccessible norm and the asymptotic movement that strives to meet in infinity. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 353

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘file that was never closed’ and ‘permanent measure of a gap’ foreshadow the always-on telescreen record — the continuity of perpetual examination with Oceania’s surveillance. — connects to: Disciplinary penality is irreducible to the traditional penality of law and eventually invested it. — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 282; Subtler punishment masked sovereign power rather than making it more humane; Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55 (+3 more)
• ADDENDUM: Supports the sacrifice essay’s contrast between sovereign bodily power and modern disciplinary correction as alternative modes of exercising power over subjects.

Related

• Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain (similarity 0.84)
• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body (similarity 0.83)
• Disciplinary penality is irreducible to the traditional penality of law and eventually invested it. (similarity 0.82)
• The punished body anchors sovereign power’s manifestation (similarity 0.80)
• Imprisonment has always retained a hidden element of physical pain (similarity 0.80)
• The public spectacle of punishment gave way to enclosed hierarchized detention within decades. (similarity 0.79)
• Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension (similarity 0.79)
• The criminal’s soul is itself judged and punished, not merely analyzed (similarity 0.79)
• The reformed penalty shifted its target from the body to subtler suffering (similarity 0.78)
• The guillotine aimed to punish a juridical abstraction rather than a pain-feeling body (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Modern punishment targets the soul rather than the body #expands (0.92) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 55
• Subtler punishment masked sovereign power rather than making it more humane #contradicts (0.90)
• Punishment’s deterrent power migrated from visible spectacle to certainty of apprehension #corroborates (0.90) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 45
• Punishment shifted from sovereign vengeance to ensuring no crime goes unpunished #expands (0.85)
• Modern punishment targets liberty, not bodily pain #exemplifies (0.78) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 46