Discipline: Essential for Success and Happiness - Essay Sample

Introduction

Discipline is necessary for the society for all people to live successfully and happily. It involves the act of living by following some set of rules and regulations as it requires people to do things in the right way and doing them at right time. In any institution, discipline must be present, whether home, office, factor or any other institution. It makes it possible for individuals to get magnificent opportunities in life, go ahead in the right way, experience a lot, and learn new things in life. Indiscipline causes disorders, and it keeps no progress and peace but just problems. It is habitual and involves thinking of oneself and others. The social control, which is presented in disciplinary pervades elements of life, and there is no room to escape out of this control.

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On the other hand, punishment is penalty that comes as a result of doing an offense or a fault. One of its forms is logical consequences, which are an outcome of unacceptable behavior. Punishment can be in form of corporal, and it might include imprisonment or death penalty at its extreme. Also it comprises other sentences which include flogging, branding, and flagellation. Sometimes the offenders are rehabilitated instead of being punished. The presence of these other alternatives balances discipline and over-criminalization.

In both traditional and modern societies, crime is inescapable, and with action, always there has to be an outcome. However, the consequence of breaking the law might be evil and even harsh. It is referred to as punishment. The presence of discipline enforces both teaching obedience and patterns of behavior that are accepted in society. In society, the existence of stability is portrayed by availability of defined and clear power, and people abide by those individuals in power (Dick, & Collings 2014). In current institutions, stability must be present, or individuals would not respect authority and will not be motivated to work. To ensure motivation is present in the workplace, employers usually install cameras and other techniques to monitor their workers. If individuals are not doing something wrong, then there is no reason to watch them. For this reason managers or employers ensure their work stations are set in a way that someone is at the middle of the building watching everybody, but the employees do not know they are observed or not (Dick, & Collings 2014). The workers will be of high dignity, and they will portray good behavior as they think they are watched, hence will maintain high productivity.

In medieval times, punishment consisted of torture and execution. It entailed violence and brutality, but with time there was the establishment of prisons. In modern societies, it is based on imprisonment which means that a criminal is taken to cell for some time. The main aim of this particular form of punishment was to come up with authority, a power. According to Foucault, in his book Discipline and punish, referred ability to mean for example presence of both guards and prisoners in prison. The guards possess the power as they are the key holder and has the authority to limit the prisoner from doing something and lock him in the cell. Discipline is used by the actions and experiences of a person (Schrift 2013). Presence of jails targets to reform the person detained to deter crime. The prisoner is transformed to fit the norms and standards that are present in society. The prisoner will behave in a proper manner to be released earlier from the jail rather than being subjected to beating by the guards; hence the prisoner will eventually give in to those in power. There are times in life when someone is forced to surrender to the authority because it might be of excellent benefit to one who has less power. Sometimes prisoners may not accept to be under the influence, the truth is, they will be under control in the whole time they are in prison.

The presence of architecture, which is not genuine, allows more individuals to be controlled by others who are less. As long as there is center tower, those people in power can decide typically or abnormally. However, it is no surprise that there are institutions that contain constant surveillance are in societies. There is judgment, observation, and examination which are differentiated in terms of knowledge gain, and purpose when applied to present social beings and world. These concepts help to understand nature relating to human conditions.

The historical inquiries concerning the origin of discipline in society in the 16th to 19th centuries are traced back to the writings of Foucault (Foucault 2012). But today, under conditions of modernity, there arises some questions about his contributions. With increase in market ubiquity, the termination of national boundaries, and dissolution of centralized states, the current world is far disconnected from the bounded societies with discipline that Foucault described. Foucault sees power as a stream of flowing energy from all aspects of culture but not as fixed physical force. Power binds itself in amending individual's behavior.

Disciplinary power trains individuals how to act properly because it is power that is possessed by those who belong to society, which they apply in determination of norms and it is more diffuse compared to sovereign power. Disciplinary authority is considered to be everywhere as individuals act by existing normative judgments that they visualize other people are making on them (Schrift 2013). Discipline does not have specific location as it belongs to the whole society, and the norms that to adhere are social. More so, discipline works under observation upon actions of an individual, and it engages the will of an individual to perform. The constant practice of surveillance benefited in the creation of capable and obedient people.

About the process of normalizing judgment, attention is given to the errors that might be portrayed in a specific behavior to reform that particular behavior. The process itself allows establishment of codes that can be placed near law and tradition. Normalizing of judgment is seen in prisons of modern world, as shown by the situation where prisoners are exposed to a rigid program of education, exercise, and prayer. The prisoners have to maintain the outlined norms or he or she can be judged. During the classical age, main concern was to revenge for the victim, while in modern society concern is on the criminal as an abnormal person. The spread of normalizing judgment is triggered by presence of standardized education such as law, and medical schools, which created norms of both law and health. If an individual deviates from the established standards, then he or she will be forced to get help from a reformist like a psychologist and after it will be examined until full recovery from the crime.

Analysis of punishment in its social context will help examine how it was affected by ever-changing relations of power. Punishment reformed since eighteenth century as it was propelled by the motive to establish efficient operation of power and not the welfare of those who were in prison. Discipline worked through arrangement and at same time coercing the movement of individuals together with the time and space experience (Schrift 2013). The whole process was attained by timetables, process of exercise and military drills. People were created out of mass through presence of discipline.

If an individual is found to have committed a particular crime, the fine imposed different impacts people differently about their wealth. In contrast, prison affects people equally as it do not involve money but takes freedom. Punishment is applied to both offenders and delinquents which are differentiated by the action they have done. Offenders are people who commit lousy offense while delinquent is an individual with a horrible personality who has committed a more profound pathological condition. Foucault thinks there is presence of shift in crime from offenders to delinquents (Foucault 2012). In this context, justice aims to transform people as a whole by not punishing the actions crime committers have done but being concerned about the reformation of the entire personality.

Furthermore, punishment through imprisonment have not done the actual purpose intended to do as crime rates are likely the same, and mostly those who are released from prison sometimes commit other crimes rather than their reformation. Prisons produce normal and abnormal senses, which can structure societies actively as compared to the transformation of individual criminals.

There is an account for historical and universal developments and existence of emerged disciplined society where the institutions are characterized by both discipline and surveillance and where abnormal behavior and delinquent are exposed to scientific research. The enlargement of disciplinary control created a society which consists of docile bodies who submits to the state`s will. Nevertheless, there is a belief that the ruling class used the presence of law to diminish the uprising`s power, and the dominant class utilized the delinquent level to profit themselves.

References

Dick, P., & Collings, D. G. (2014). Discipline and punish? Strategy discourse, senior manager subjectivity, and contradictory power effects. human relations, 67(12), 1513-1536. Retrieved from https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0018726714525810

Foucault, M. (2012). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Vintage.Schrift, A. D. (2013). Discipline and punish. A companion to Foucault, 137-153. Retrieved from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781118324905#page=151