Just to volunteer an example: An editorial by Assange that explicitly called out the panopticon was on my mind today.

The rise of "meta glasses" and reading ICE also wishes to employ them was what reminded me of this I believe.

Sociology (like philosophy, like math) is one of these subjects were a good teacher makes all the difference. I guess true of any subject. Many people come away from a subject thinking it's bunk or not relevant to them for all sorts of reasons. Teachers are not meant to be babysitters or proctors they are supposed to offer context and connect the dots.

The amount of bad teachers (it is a hard job) is quite staggering. Education is in large part a mess because we've tried to scale a system that was designed for the very few to the very many without the proper investment.