ABSTRACT
Life seeks safety from violence; entertainment programming seeks release from safety into violence. We escape the bonds of life on earth through stories of life on other worlds, even if those other worlds are close enough to ours to make us shudder. This chapter asks if entertainment violence has its limits, for the sake of life and health and human prospering. The chapter advocates a strong yes to that “if”, but a yes marked not so much by universal rules than longitudinal wisdom. From violence in music and film, comics and gaming, the chapter urges appropriate limits and wise watching. Thus the chapter is highly controversial, for few entertainment users imagine that their choices are subject to moral assessment, and much less to moral assessment by anyone other than themselves. The chapter accepts the notion of a public sphere which the people do right to assess.
