4/13 - Truth and Power

In Truth and Power by Michel Foucault, he discusses how knowledge is not logical reasoning, but rather, knowledge is the truth that powerful social forces implement meaning into. So the ideologies we practice and enforce in our lives holds more power and social consequences than we realized. In relations to the influence of culture, this significant concept reminds me to be more conscious of institutions that abuses and capitalizes off their power. For example, the Prison Industrial Complex exploits young men of color, especially black youths that lives in poor urban cities. Due to their stereotypes, society does not want to defend people that are targeted and sentenced for minor crimes. Therefore, we end up reproducing the idea that “these people belong in jail” and, at the same time, fail to realize the systemic roots of what brought them to this type of situation. This is what Foucault refers to when discussing the social power controlling what is holds true institutions and our worldview.  

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