Michael Foucault?S ?Right Of Death And Power Over Life? Essay, Research Paper
Michael Foucault?s writing in ?Right of Death and Power Over Life? is one
of the most confusing and difficult pieces of literature I have ever read. He thinks
that the world was not created to have rules and laws; and by creating these laws
we are just creating problems for the entire world.
Foucault says that if a king were to wage war on his enemy, and required
that his men fight, then the king is not ?directly proposing their death?, because it
was ?an indirect power of life or death?. However if the king?s subject raised up
against him and then was brought to death, then the subject would be brought to
death without a choice. Foucault tries to make us believe that a world without
rules is the best type of world possible. He believes that if a man did a terrible
crime, and normally would deserve the death penalty, then we shouldn?t kill him.
He thinks that each person should have control over his own death. Foucault holds
that if there is no death penalty, there would be no crimes committed. However if
there would be no death in the law system, then a new class of criminals. He also
says that if a child has failed a test then, he then starts a new class of children, a
slower class and uneducated class.
In my opinion, Foucault has sprung up a very interesting point. In
Amsterdam there is no laws against drugs. All drugs of all sorts are allowed. This
has greatly reduced the crime rate in this country and everyone is a lot happier. In
America, where drugs are illegal, we find thousands of cases where people are
committing crimes to just get some drugs. They have to steal money and do illegal
acts just to satisfy the temptations. In Amsterdam local stores sell it so the prices
are not so expensive and no stealing is required to purchase them.
According to Foucault, he thinks that rules are made to broken, and if there
were no rules how would anyone be break them? Rules are made to control the
criminals of the world. If you think the world is crazy now with laws, then you
would not want to imagine the world without laws. We the people put these laws
into affect by electing all of our leaders, so why are we now complaining? The
only people that are complaining about the laws are the people that are breaking
them.