Discipline and Resistance (Week-9)
In the movie Office Space there were three employees who were really tired of working in the condition of the office. So they decided to take some steps which are against company’s policy. Peter one of the character tried to sneak out early and caught by his boss. Because of that he needs to work on weekends as a punishment, which according to Peter is not fair. So he started showing resistance by not going to office and not answering calls from his boss. The other two who are also tired of company’s environment and work culture, they decided to plan a virus which can deposit money from the company’s bank account to theirs. Hence because of such bad culture, there is a negative effect on the discipline of the employees who tries to cheat company and harm it. Also as a Boss of the company Lumbergh was using his power is wrong ways which makes employees to work against him and they resist to cooperate with him. Similarly Foucault’s essay “The Subject and Power” has same arguments as it is shown in the movie. He argued that the study of power should accompany the study of resistance. Peter and his friends didn’t resist in the beginning and then suddenly when they realized, their resistance turned into aggression and try not to cooperate with company and their boss. Foucault’s essay also talk about domination and exploitation, which is also shown in the movie by the Boss who use his power to dominate and exploit people by making them work over time and giving them extra work. Thus the movie and Foucault’s essay goes hand in hand for resistance, discipline and power.
Myth, Stories, and Metaphors:
Myths can contribute to make culture’s ideologies more strong and powerful by some special narratives which reveals the belief and value of the culture. In reality Myth is a story which can be real or made up from the past. Especially in Indian culture we can so many stories which some people believes to be a myth while others think it was true and it was present in past decades for example “The flying chariot in wars between God and Demons”. On the other hand stories are narration which also can be real or self-made. Some stories are real which were faced by people and have strong proof, while some are fake which does not have any evidence to support it. According to definition metaphor is a figure of speech which can be used for comparison between two things having similar properties. For example it is said working in some companies is a nightmare but it is necessary to sleep too.
Manufactured Consent:
In manufactured consent employees are willing to adopt and enforce the decisions made by the legitimate power or organization, society or system. It is mention in book that manufactured consent is evident when employees or manager justifies the decision or action taken by them by saying, “I was just doing my job”. I have come across a video regarding manufacturing consent in government and private sector by Noam Chomsky.
