That's what makes the panopticon so disturbing. You can't (or at least shouldn't) ever feel entirely safe/free because the threat is always looming and strikes

That's what makes the panopticon so disturbing. You can't (or at least shouldn't) ever feel entirely safe/free because the threat is always looming and strikes at any time. I think on some level most people do realize that, even the ones who have never known things any other way, and I think it's only getting harder and harder to ignore. Difficult to say what it's been doing to us though. There' are a lot of other things contributing to the background level of dread these days.