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Violence in entertainment has an adverse affect on our society.

Think back to the '50's, and the TV show "Happy Days". Was there ever ANY violence shown on that show? If any at all, at most there was a possible fist-fight. TV shows today are literally spattered with blood and gore, and graphic scenes of rape, beatings, torture, and murder. We are becoming desensitized to these things and that is a very slippery slope to be on.

I recall reading an article on this very topic where a high-level military authority was voicing concern over the violence in video games that children are playing. His concern was that these were the types of things used to train soldiers going to war, in order to desensitize them to the "necessary" violence that they were inevitably going to be exposed to. For them, it was a survival technique. What are these video games teaching our children? Extra points for running down pedestrians and raping and killing prostitutes? What happened to a little yellow pac-man eating dots and cherries, and pursuing ghosts for extra points?

All you have to do is look at news stories and read headlines. Through the years, our society has become increasingly fragmented and dysfunctional, and increasingly violent. It's very sad when, to quote the Train song, "children have to play inside so they don't disappear".

I don't know if there's any way to unring this bell; to get back to the kinder, gentler nation that we used to be. But I do strongly believe that we need to stop where we are; not to allow any further escalation of violence in entertainment. We need to undo as much damage as possible, and to prevent any further damage.

Learn more about this author, Kim Harnett.
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