Michel Foucault Quotes
A real subjection is born mechanically from a fictitious relation [...] He who is subjected to a field of visibility, and who knows it, assumes responsibility for the constraints of power; he makes them play spontaneously upon himself; he inscribed in himself the power relation in which he simultaneously plays both roles; he becomes the principle of his own subjection.
Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. Translated by Alan Sheridan, Vintage Books, 1995, p. 202.
By not always using its size and power in all international issues, the United States retains much admiration of people in other nations as often operating by humanistic and democratic principles, we also retain enough influence that we can influence many events and issues where very often, in a unipolar world, other countries would tend to stick together to thwart the one superpower and the US would have to use force more and more to get cooperation and often not be able to. However, although the US certainly acts in its vested interests, it restrains itself sufficiently to also be able to exercise soft power.
Paul-Michel Foucault was a French philosopher, historian of ideas, writer, political activist, and literary critic.
