Shifting the Spotlight: An Analysis of Modern Panoptic Power as a Critique of Cancel Culture

Abstract

The central argument of this paper is that cancel culture, an online social media phenomenon and tool of social justice activism on the left, merely replicates the very power dynamics that keep us in submission. Through an in depth analysis of Michel Foucault's ideas on the discursive shifts during the Age of Reason, the prison as an institution of power rather than of justice, and the ways in which surveillance capitalism is taking over our modern economy and social interactions, I will argue that Foucault's Panopticon prison is even more relevant today than ever before. Due to the expansive reach of modern technology, the power of the Panopticon has influence over every institution and individual, and has even intercepted our attempts at resistance.