Foucalt and the Panoptican

In the reading by Foucault that dealt with the “Panoptican”, Foucault said that the point of the Panoptican is “to induce in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power.” The idea surrounding this place is to make the prisoners believe they are being watched at all times. This lets them know that they do not have power and that there are others who have all of the control over them.
The government does this to all of America. Everywhere we go there is most likely surveillance. Cameras are located in many locations in order to prevent shoplifting as well as to protect those in the surrounding areas (such as in banks, museums, government buildings etc.) from possible armed robberies and more things along these lines. However, the surveillance put out by the government is not always there for protection. Take Walmart for example, Every product that is bought at Walmart has a tag on it that informs the government who bought it, where they live, how old they are etc. This could be considered as an infringement on privacy. No one wants to have tabs kept on them when they just want to buy something at the store (Walmart). The Panoptican was created in order to keep constant surveillance on those who did wrong, but there is an entire nation that is living in a form of the Panoptican who did not do anything to cause those in power to be constantly viewing how they live their lives.