Pre-Write For Synthesis

         Power is the central argument in Kanye West's "Power", John Berger's "Ways of Seeing", and Michael Foucault's "Panopticism". In the music video power, West assumes the position of a Monarch or Pharaoh. His lyrics combined with the powerful images portray that he is at the ultimate position of power. He remains free from distractions, represented by tens of women surrounding him, in order to succeed. I still ponder as to why to men at the end of the video appear to try and kill Kanye, and whether they are successful. This may represent the mass majority's attempt to overtake Kanye as ruler, of the music world or in a more general sense. John Berger writes about the power of images, especially in artwork. He concludes that the invention of the camera has completely diminished the power and value of images because it mystifies the true meaning of what the artist was trying to portray by replication. He claims that the power now rests in the value of the piece, or its rarity. Finally, in "Panopticism", Michael Foucault describes the geometrically superior panopticon. It is a structure at the center of a room surrounded with windows in order to see any inmate at any particular time. The panopticon epitomizes power by controlling a maximum number of people with a minimum amount of people operating the panopticon. It was first meant to watch over criminals, but has now made its way into academics, factories, and hospitals in order to improve performance. Conclusively, I believe the underlying factor connecting all three stories of power is vision. The ability to see is something we all take for granted, but our eyes have shown us that Kanye West sits on a throne, that we can now google the  "Mona Lisa" and pull of thousands of printed replicas, and that we can control people in a panopticon by simply sitting there with our eyes open. Clearly, we can synthesize that seeing is not only believing, but powerful as well.