Portfolio: Final Exam

“I would like to write the historical prison with all the political investments of the body it gathers together in closed architecture. Why? Simply because I am interested in the past? No if one means by that… a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means… the history of the present.”

-Michel Foucault

To summarize Michel Foucault’s quote, historical confinement including the political devotions come together in a closed development. This does not mean they are interested in writing about the past according to what happening in present time. Michel Foucault was trying to get the message across that not all events occurring today are because past history. Also you can’t always rely on the past to know if something will work right if tried again. Basically, you won’t always learn from all past mistakes. It’s not necessarily because they are ignorant and just want to follow in someone else footsteps, but it be just because they didn’t know about it happening before. Something may have occurred in the middle that wasn’t known to make the whole outcome go wrong.

In the earlier years of the becoming of the USA, the British tried to tax the colonists extra. The colonists didn’t agree because they wanted to be independent. The king didn’t know what was going on in the colonies because he didn’t live there, and they colonist didn’t believe it to be fair. Colonist took radical actions to stop the taxation. When the US declared independence in 1776, they also had to set taxes because of the war that occurred. American’s were in debt from the war and it was hard to build up economies for each state. The Americans were afraid it would end up like the British taxation, but fortunately things didn’t get as out of hand.

In present time, we are still getting taxed, except in some states. Things are going pretty well. There is a war going on so prices have gone up in some areas, such as gas prices. Many people don’t agree but there isn’t any one taking irrational actions against the President or Governors. Nobody went to the president and said “if you go through with this war we will end up in debt and everyone will get their weapons against you!” Our country is still running fine and everyone has tried to go on and live their lives with what have come up.

This influences what I have learned in class because you can’t depend on the past history to tell what is happening in the present. I haven’t tried to compare past issues with one that has been similar, and thought it would turn out exactly the same. Had I taken a different route in class, I wouldn’t have learned as much as I did. I would just get more confused and be one sided. I would have answered Foucault’s questions entirely different. I wouldn’t have agreed to his quote, because my opinion would be that you should rely on the past to make decisions for the present.