blog #2 page 20

Discourse is can be seen as powerful in the sense that it can plant seeds of ideas in peoples' heads. It can be especially powerful if the consumer was unclear before reading or talking about something and now believe that the new information is "right". I think that this is when something can become dangerous. This may be a bad example, but whenever I watch the movie "Goodfellas" for the next hour or so I feel cool, for lack of a better word. I feel like I understand mobsters and have a sudden feeling like I could get away with robbing an airport. I do however understand that I am a suburban teenage girl that has no organized crime experience and that I am not a cool, suave Italian man. But this same feeling I get could be the same feeling that somebody else could get when they read The Anarchists Cookbook. It can be dangerous if it gets in the wrong hands and that person begins to feel like they are a part of something.
I once saw this photographer talk about her work. Everyone there loved her work and all the time she put in to each photograph and everyone had their own ideas about what it all meant. It was funny though because when the photographer told us what it meant, no body really cared. Everyone cared about what it meant to them and the last person everyone wanted to look to for it was the artist. People want their own meaning. Another way to control discourse would be censorship or just plain leaving things out. Like, it is easy to be on the Big Bad Wolf's side if you knew what it was like to be a wolf and see Little Red skip through the woods alone.
I do not believe that expertise should decide who can speak on certain issues. Anyone can speak about anything even if that results in putting your foot in your mouth. If you do want substance to what you're saying, it doesn help to have some education in that field. Fortunately though, there is no law for making a fool of yourself.