Foucault and Santa Claus, BoredCaitlin, 11/20

Foucault writes that “our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance” (Foucault 101). Quite often the mode of surveillance won’t even truly exist, but it exercises its power nonetheless. I remember in class someone mentioned a story of having a cop car sounding a siren but no one was actually in the car (or something along those lines. My memory is a bit foggy), or “security cameras” that aren’t cameras at all. Oddly enough, this made me think about the entire concept of Santa Claus. 

Santa doesn’t exist, but parents still use his “existence” as leverage for their children’s good behavior. They make kids believe that if they behave badly, they’ll be getting lumps of coal in their Christmas stockings. Why is this? Because a magical bearded fat man is surveilling their behavior from the North Pole, watching their every move. As Foucault puts it, “a real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation.” It’s their way of using an imaginary force to exercise discipline with their children, and until they’re old enough to realize Santa can’t exist, kids go along with it because they don’t know any better. To them, behaving well is another way to get a toy.