Hi,

I am reading some introductory books about Foucault and having some questions:

Can we call the case of Damiens the Regicide an example of sovereign power and the panopticon an example of disciplinary power? If so, is there an era of sovereign power and an era of disciplinary power? Can we say that the transition from the sovereign power to the disciplinary power a historical evolution or even a progress? Is power/knowledge a characteristic of and the main governmental means in an era of disciplinary power?

In a panopticon, a watcher is a subject and an object of power at the same time, and an inmate is a subject and an object of power at the same time, too. Foucault saw power as multidirectional, so I suppose that even in the era of sovereign power, a king or a queen was also subject to some kind of power from the bottom. I suppose that a monarch or people ranking high in a social hierarchy in the era of sovereign power were easier to evade the binding power from the bottom since assessments from the bottom (periodical elections, feedback questionnaires, etc.) were less institutionalized. Then why was there a transition from a society of sovereign power to a society of disciplinary power? Why would a monarch or people ranking high in a social hierarchy give up their "freedom" or "privilege" in such a transition? Did this transition have any purposes or objectives? Does such a transition have to do with the Age of Reason?

If everyone is a subject and an object of some kind of power and bound by that power, be it from top, from bottom, or from their peers, who are the benefited or the privileged in such a society of disciplinary power? Is there any purposes or objectives for the existence of such a society of disciplinary power? Who does such a society serve?

I can't help comparing a panopticon with the human battery fields in the film Matrix. If the transition from a society of sovereign power to a society of disciplinary power has purposes or objectives, did the transition fulfill its purposes or objectives? If it did not fulfill its purposes or objectives, can we call such a transition a failure or even a degeneration?

I am looking forward to your answers and opinions. Thank you.