Phineas, Ferb and Foucault

In the show Phineas and Ferb, the future is transformed when a past event is altered. The world turns into a dystopia full of intense security and vigilance. I never would have imagined that this children’s show would incorporate the work of the great philosopher Michel Foucault.

Foucault explores the concept of the Panopticon. A Panopticon type world seeks to discipline people to one point of view and one way of acting. This is achieved through high security and reinforcement of the correct behavior. Foucault states that the “gaze is alert everywhere” (551) and that “the inmate will constantly have before his eyes the outline of the tall central tower from which he is spied on” (555).

In the dystopia depicted in Phineas and Ferb, all people must wear lab coats and everyone is named Joe. These are results of laws that Emperor Doofenschwartz has passed. The people living in this dystopia all monitor each other. When Candace, an outsider to the world, arrives she is immediately told that she must wear her lab coat. In that way, the townspeople continuously police each other.

There is also a statue of the Emperor through which he can keep watch over all of the citizens. Whenever he wants to communicate with the townspeople he simply does it through televised messages. He always has some kind of way to access and monitor the people.

I must admit that Phineas and Ferb have made the Panopticon concept a lot more interesting for me.

Works Cited

Foucault, Michel. "Discipline and Punish." Literary Theory: an Anthology. By Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2004. 549-66. Print.

Marxism Presentation

I was part of the group that did the presentation on Marxism. I was really excited to see that the class responded well to our activities and that we actually had an on-going discussion.

In order to get our presentation ready, our group met during spring break and assigned sections of the chapters to each person. I was assigned the beginning of the chapter on Capital, Chapter 6. My section focused on commodities, use-value, and exchange-value. My job was to define each of these terms in a way that the class would be able to understand. I prepared my slides with the definitions that Marx gave of each term and then, during the presentation, gave examples so that it would be a lot clearer. It was really great to see that all of the students had a strong grasp on these terms.

I have to admit that before we gave our presentation I was extremely nervous. However, once we were all up there and the discussion began, it was actually really fun! Hearing students bounce ideas off each other was very enlightening. =]

Heigh-Ho Marx!

Disney's Snow White presents a magical story of friendship, goodness, and love. However, even in the middle of these fantastic qualities, it is possible to uncover a few capitalist ideas.

The seven dwarfs spend their days mining for diamonds, rubies and other expensive stones. These stones can be seen as a commodity, which according to Karl Marx is "an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another" (Marx 665). Although it is not shown in the movie, it is safe to assume that these men then give the commodities produced to a person in a higher position who gives them some sort of wage. Judging by their patched clothes and the tiny cottage they live in, the dwarfs make just enough money to survive. The diamonds they dig up, however, are sold for incredibly high prices, none of which they receive. This is exactly what Marx declares makes a capitalist economic system: "the appropriation from workers of more value than they are paid for" (Marx 665).

In the clip above, another aspect of capitalism is portrayed. Marx states that "[in] production, men not only act on nature but also on one another. They produce only by cooperating in a certain way and mutually exchanging their activities. In order to produce, they enter into specific, determinate connections and relations with one another and only within these social connections and relations does their action on nature, does production, take place" (Marx 662). Each of the dwarfs has a specific role in the process of attaining the diamonds. Four of them are in charge of actually digging up the stones, while another one transports the discovered stones to be examined. The job of examining every diamond belongs to another dwarf, while the seventh, less-intelligent dwarf has the responsibility of throwing away the defective diamonds. In this manner, the workers have created their own "working" system that helps them achieve their final product. Without one of the dwarfs, the fluidity of the process would be interrupted, resulting in a slower production of the commodity.

Next time I watch this movie, this scene will no longer be just a catchy tune.

Works Cited

Marx, Karl. "Capital". Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Micheal. Blackwell Publishing 2004: 665-672. Print.

Marx, Karl. "Wage Labor and Capital". Literary Theory: An Anthology. Ed. Rivkin, Julie and Ryan, Micheal. Blackwell Publishing 2004: 559-664. Print.