Down We Plunge to the Prison of My Mind

It seems like lately, everything in the world has had to do with Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Perhaps Foucauldian thought permeates everything so thoroughly that no one can escape. Foucault is a French philosopher and this book is about prisons and how they are a psychological punishment whereas torture and public executions were bodily punishment. He talks about surveillance, isolation, spaces, schools, and so on.

So, everything I read mentions Foucault--probably cuz I'm reading about Japanese American internment.

We went to a play called Our Country's Good about British convicts in Australia.

Someone is always watching, and this is law enforcement without law officers. Just as Foucault would note and tell me that it's a part of surveillance.

And there are other things. Such as my favorite lines from Phantom of the Opera. Imagine:

"Down once more to my black despair,
Down we plunge to the prison of my mind,
Down that path into darkness deep as hell!"

Ahh, love it.

Another favorite from Phantom is all of the "Music of the Night." Maybe I just like dark music.

Speaking of Foucault and musical, I love "Stars" from Les Miserables, which is sung by the justice-driven man, Javert.

Another awesome moment in musical movies that has nothing to do with Foucault is the bottle dance in Fiddler on the Roof and then when all the Jewish guys are dancing in a frenzy. Why don't we dance like that anymore? Seriously, since the people of the past always danced in choreographed sequences (some did, and they are called folk dances).

The point is: when one reads philosophy, they suddenly see everything as having to do with that topic.