Power vs. Influence: Foucault’s Radical Redefinition of Control in Society

Photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

Power. It’s one of those things you never notice until it’s right up in your face, shaking you by the shoulders like some madman with a crowbar.

And no, it doesn’t have to be a dictator in a fancy suit telling you how to live your life. No, that’s too easy. Michel Foucault knew better. He saw that power wasn’t some monster you could just slay with a sword—it was the water you swam in, the air you breathed.

He’s the guy who looked at power and said, “You think you know what this is? Guess again, pal. It’s everywhere, and it’s nothing like you thought.”

This isn’t your dad’s power—the power of a king on his throne or a cop with a badge. This isn’t even the power of your school principal or the rich kid with the shiny car.

No, Foucault’s power is subtle, creeping in from all directions, embedded in everything you say, everything you do, everything you think. It’s not a thing. It’s a process.

It’s a sucker punch, right to the gut.

Foucault’s Power: The Invisible Hand

If you’ve ever wondered why you wear a certain brand of clothes or why you feel like you need to be ‘successful’ in some way you can’t quite articulate—well, Foucault’s your guy.

He dug into the heart of this stuff like a man hunting for buried treasure, and what he found was not pretty.

Let’s take something simple. The way you wear your clothes.

It’s not just about comfort. It’s not just about style. There’s a whole goddamn universe behind that decision. Society has trained you to see certain clothes as signs of success, or failure.

You don’t even notice it, because it’s all around you, every day, in every commercial, every billboard, every movie. It’s a game, and you’re playing it whether you know it or not. And that, my friend, is power.

Foucault wasn’t talking about a king ordering you around—no, he was talking about how society, through its norms, rules, and expectations, creates you.

You think you’re a free agent making decisions, but what’s really happening is that you’re dancing to a tune you didn’t even know was playing.

Power vs. Influence: The Gray Area

Influence? That’s the guy trying to convince you to buy a used car, slick salesman with a smile and a story.

You can spot influence a mile away—it’s loud, it’s clear, it’s in your face.

But power? Power is something different. Power is when you don’t even know you’re being influenced.

Power is the breath in your lungs, the pulse in your chest that says, “You need this. You need to follow this, or else.” You can’t point to a single person or thing.

Power is the invisible force that shapes your decisions, makes you think certain things are right or wrong, makes you feel certain desires without you ever having a choice in the matter.

That’s Foucault. He said, “Power is not something you have, it’s something that happens. It’s a thing between people.”

And that’s the crux of it—it’s relational, it’s everywhere, and it’s about interaction, not domination.

The Deep Dive: Power Isn’t Just Negative Control

A lot of people want to argue that power, according to Foucault, is just a polite way of saying “total domination.”

They look at his ideas and scream, “But where’s the bad guy? Where’s the oppression?”

Well, Foucault wasn’t interested in that. He wasn’t looking for some tyrant to hate or blame. The thing with Foucault is that he’s always about how power works, not who holds it.

If you’re looking for a villain, you’ll be disappointed. No, Foucault’s power is more subtle. It’s like a needle in your skin, slowly working its way through, without you ever feeling it.

Foucault’s version of power isn’t just about putting the boot on your neck. Power doesn’t have to be some overt, brutal force. It’s not some overlord telling you what to do.

It’s much trickier than that—it’s productive. It shapes the world and your very actions. It’s the constant, quiet flow of social norms, of knowledge, of beliefs. It’s everywhere.

Take the prison system. Foucault used it as one of his big examples. Prison isn’t just about locking people up. It’s about shaping behavior.

You think the punishment is the point? No. The point is how society has constructed the need for punishment in the first place.

The prison is just the final piece of the puzzle. It’s not about the prison warden—it’s about the mechanisms of surveillance, control, and knowledge that are built into society.

This isn’t the medieval king chopping off heads—it’s the slow grind of social forces shaping everyone from birth to death.

Explaining to an Apprentice: Power for the Young Ones

Let’s make this simple. Imagine you’re playing a video game, right? You’re the hero, and you think you’re in control of everything.

But, here’s the thing: the game itself is rigged. The rules are already set before you even start. The way the levels are designed, the way the characters talk to you—it’s all part of a system that’s been built into the game.

Now, that’s the power Foucault’s talking about. It’s not some guy pulling your strings. It’s the way the whole world is designed to make you play the game a certain way.

You might think you’re free, but the rules are everywhere. The things you believe, the things you want, the things you think you need? They’re all a product of the game you’re in.

Opposing Views: Who’s Fighting Foucault?

There are plenty of people who can’t stomach Foucault’s view of power. They like things cleaner—neater. They don’t like the idea that power isn’t always about one guy at the top telling everyone what to do.

CriticMediumCore Argument
Max WeberSociologyPower is about authority and structures, not invisible forces.
Ayn RandLiteraturePower should be about individual freedom, not societal structures.
George Orwell“1984” (Novel)Power is about surveillance and direct control.
Steven LukesPhilosophyPower exists in three dimensions—visible, hidden, and invisible—but rejects Foucault’s all-encompassing view.

Take Orwell, for instance. His vision of power is straightforward: Big Brother, always watching, always controlling. But Foucault? Big Brother isn’t the only problem—it’s the whole system that creates the need for surveillance. Power is in the idea of surveillance, not the eye that watches.

The Internet: A World of Infinite Sameness

The Internet, man. It was supposed to be the wild west, a frontier of limitless possibility. A place where anyone could be anything. But take a look around now. Every site looks the same, every opinion echoes like a tired old joke, and every person is just another cog in the same goddamn machine.

You scroll through social media, and it’s like staring into a mirror that’s been shattered and glued back together with the same cheap glue.

Foucault would have loved this. He’d light a cigarette, lean back in his chair, and say, “See? This is power.” Not the kind you feel, but the kind you don’t. The kind that sneaks into your head through the glowing screen, shapes what you think is cool, what you think is acceptable, what you think is you.

The irony? We’ve got tools now that could turn every one of us into gods of creativity. You can record a song in your bedroom, paint a masterpiece on an iPad, write a novel that a million people could read tomorrow. But does anyone? Rarely. Because the Internet isn’t just a tool—it’s also a leash.

A Homogenized World

Take a walk down any virtual street—Instagram, TikTok, whatever the hell’s trending this week. What do you see? The same dances, the same filters, the same captions. Everyone is unique, just like everyone else.

Power doesn’t have to beat you into submission—it just has to nudge you toward the acceptable, the safe. Try something new? You’ll be mocked, ignored, canceled, whatever. Better stick to the script. Better stay in the lines. The result? A world that looks different on the surface but feels like one long, bland rerun.

Look at fashion. Once upon a time, you could spot a punk, a goth, a hippie, or a skater from a mile away. Now? Everyone’s wearing the same overpriced hoodie, the same trendy sneakers. The algorithms have figured out what sells, and they’ve beaten originality into submission.

This isn’t just influence—it’s a form of power so subtle it feels like a choice. You’re not being forced to wear that outfit or listen to that music, but it sure feels like you’d be an idiot not to.

The Silent Giants

And then there are the internet giants. Google. Facebook. Amazon. They don’t just run the show—they are the show. They set the rules, shape the trends, and watch every move you make.

But it’s not some dystopian, Orwellian nightmare with sirens blaring and jackboots at the door. It’s softer than that.

Foucault would’ve seen them as the perfect example of power in action. They don’t tell you what to do—they don’t have to. They design the platforms you live on. They suggest the ads, the posts, the ideas that slowly, quietly shape how you think and act.

Think about it: Facebook doesn’t tell you to feel insecure, but there’s that perfectly curated feed of everyone’s best moments.

Amazon doesn’t tell you to buy the same cheap garbage everyone else has, but there it is, suggested, liked, and bought a million times over. Power doesn’t need a villain. It just needs a system, and baby, the Internet is one hell of a system.

What We’ve Lost

The saddest part? We were promised originality. The Internet was supposed to be a revolution of ideas, a global exchange of creativity. And instead, it’s a conveyor belt, cranking out the same sanitized, prepackaged content over and over.

Everyone’s a photographer now, but all the pictures look the same. Everyone’s a writer, but they’re all chasing the same trends, afraid to veer off course. Even the rebels have become predictable.

We’ve got all the tools we could ever want, but nobody’s building anything worth keeping. The Internet was supposed to set us free, but all it’s done is wrap the leash a little tighter around our necks.

The Scientific Spin on Power

There’s some truth to Foucault’s ideas if we take a look at things like the placebo effect.

The idea that belief in something can change how your body reacts—it’s kind of like power, isn’t it? You believe in something, and that belief shapes your actions, your health, even your reality. That’s power at work, and you don’t even realize it.

Take addiction. You think it’s about a drug, right? But what if addiction is a product of society’s need to control? Foucault might argue that addiction is a result of power—of norms, discourses, and expectations that force individuals into certain roles, certain ways of thinking. The drug isn’t the cause—it’s the symptom.

Final Words

You thought you had power? You thought you had control? Welcome to the real world, kid. Power isn’t just some villain with a black hat—it’s everywhere.

It’s the world itself, shaping you into something you might not even recognize.

But there’s a flicker of hope. Or maybe it’s just the last drop of whiskey in my glass, making me feel warm inside.

Resistance, Foucault says, is possible. It’s in the cracks. The spaces where you push back, where you refuse to be molded by the forces around you. The future isn’t written, and we’re all in this mess together.

You might not be able to see the strings pulling you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try to cut them.

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