Faucault 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.