Why Privacy Matters Chomsky

Michel Foucault, a French philosopher and historian who is often considered one of the most influential and controversial scholars of the post-World War II period. Noam Chomsky, a philosopher, cognitive scientist, political commentator, journalist and social justice activist. In this paper, first I will briefly summarize some of the key points made by Foucault and Chomsky. Then I will summarize key ideas of Glenn Greenwald made in ‘Why privacy matters’. This then I will lead to how Foucault and Chomsky would view Greenwald perception and whether they would have agree or disagree with his ideas. Lastly, ending off with briefly explaining my own position in relation to the authors’.
Chomsky focuses on mass media, which is being owned and controlled
The media is not a trustworthy source of information anymore because they withheld information from the people. These decisions are based on their own selfish motives and the wealthy people that control them. However, he further states that the dishonesty that we face from the media prevents people from critical thinking, because the information that we receive from the media changes our perception and beliefs to the way the government or those who are wealthy wants them. Chomsky created the propaganda model of five filters, which the media go through in order to see which story is more newsworthy. The first is size and concentration of ownership of the mass media, which tells us that the media is control by the wealthy people. The second filter is advertising, which is that business use
Foucault discusses the plague in the seventeenth century from which disciplinary mechanism derives from. It created the idea of discipline. He uses Panopticon as an example, a place where everyone and everything is observed. A constant reminder of being watched; as a reaction, the inmates watch themselves and learn to behave properly. Panopticon is a prison that separates people not only from outside but it separates them even inside the prison. Exclusion is no longer the point of separation. It was created to eliminate the need for exclusion. How everything is under supervision, measures of techniques are taken in order to control the people who are not “normal” (marred/abnormal). A discipline based on observation and examination. Furthermore, Foucault discusses two types of model, traditional/sovereignty model and the disciplinary model. To do this, he asks two significant questions, how does power function? And what makes the functioning of power legitimate or acceptable? Power is the ability to make one individual to do something when otherwise they would not have done. Power is justified is so far as that it leads to the satisfaction for the goals we set, and it is unjustified when it is exercise without any regard. Disciplinary power differs from traditional model, it has no external property in need of protection and it does not function through consent. It is a power without walls; it manufactures