"Violence" is not just one thing!

When you hear politicians etc saying "there's too much violence on TV" they are talking ver simplistically. Violence is not just a single category. There are different types, and levels (verbal, physical, etc). There are different levels of it's relationship to reality (eg cartoon violence is different to Home Alone violence, which is different from action movie violence, which is different from violence on the news - this is called the "modality" of violence). THEN even more importantly, is WHO commits the violence, against WHOM, and with what outcome. That is, issues of CHARACTER and NARRATIVE. Is violence commited by a villain different to that commited by a protagonist? Is the narrative outcome important (are they punished, etc). In computer games, you also need to explore these questions...

Is watching violence good for you? Is playing at violence good for you??? Are you learning about right and wrong, authority, society etc? Or is it just "mindless"?

Sean