Foucault, Pollan: separated at birth?

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The late French philosopher Michel Foucault explored the evolution in punishment meted out to wrongdoers in Western societies, from public drawing-and-quartering to solitary confinement, arguing that the moral progress displayed by that kind of shift was less significant that we'd like to think. The Berkeley-based journalist Michael Pollan, meanwhile, explores how Americans mete out punishment to themselves via Big Macs, schooner-size cups of Coke, and fake "fat free" foods.

So there are some differences.

But the hairstyles (as such)? The severe black sportscoats and "I'm an intellectual" specs? The emphatic hand-gestures? Looking at pictures of the two men and shouting "Michel!" or "Michael!" is "the game that's sweeping the nation!" At least according to the blogger Shaka Freeman, who devised the game. He's been posting "Separated at Birth"–style photographs of the two men on his site for the past two months.

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