Translator Reviews ( Japanese → English )

Japanese

現代社会の統制とは１８世紀の思想家ベンサムが考案したパノプティコン（全展望監視システム）の監獄を連想する。ドーム型の監獄の中心に看守塔を置き、３６０度監視出来る設計だ。面白い事に囚人は自分を監視する看守を見る事は出来ないし、常時監視している様に思う。

　現代社会はこのシステムに異変が起きているようなものである。もしかしたら、監視する側とされる側が入れ替わろうとしている感がある。国民が政府を、市民が公的機関を、そして患者や家族が医療機関をである。逆監視社会の到来といえよう。

English

The regimentation of the contemporary society reminds me of the prison of Panopticon (panoptical monitoring system) that was devised by Bentham, a philosopher in the 18th century. A watchtower is placed in the center of a doom shaped prison, and wardens can watch inside the prison with a 360-degree field vision. Interestingly, prisoners cannot see the wardens who watch them: they have a feeling that they are always watched.

The contemporary society is like the one in which a kind of deformation is occurring for its Panopticon-like system. We have a kind of feeling that, possibly, those who watch and those who are being watched are changing their positions with each other. That is, nation watches the government, citizens their official bodies, and patients and their family watch medical institutions. We may say that the society of reverse monitoring is coming.