false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1223634778m/855751.jpg 855751 2 Does watching violent acts make us violent? As Western society becomes ever more media-saturated, this question continues to provoke heated debate. On one side are those who seek to reduce the role of violence in popular entertainment, and on the other are the defenders of free speech and civil liberties. Sissela Bok's <i>Mayhem</i> is an attempt to assess the impact of violent entertainment and to provide strategies for reducing that impact. Her study is grounded in a historical examination of violence in entertainment--from the Roman gladiators through Renaissance theater to the current attempts to regulate the Internet. By placing the current debate in a historical context, she is able to dig beneath the hysteria of the present and find the deeper roots of our fascination. <P> In exploring the modern role of violence as public entertainment, Bok pursues the middle ground, refusing to advocate outright censorship, but also reluctant to simply deny that there is a problem. One of her solutions is to increase "media literacy"--helping children "...learn to take a more active and self-protective part in evaluating what they see." This seems to be an eminently sensible response, protecting freedom of speech while interrogating the place of violence in our lives. It is not the violent entertainment itself that is dangerous, but its passive consumption by an unquestioning audience. <P> This is a dauntingly complex issue, and Bok cannot offer easy answers or hope to please all her readers, but this is a thoroughly researched and compellingly stated contribution to an extremely important debate. 841241 1998 Mayhem: Violence as Public Entertainment total:7|4:1|3:6| 7 22 9 3 3 0 false false Sun Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 18:15:07 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 15 16:18:04 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon May 12 05:29:35 -0700 2008 Mon May 19 03:42:38 -0700 2008 Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, which I remember as being far cornier and low-budget than all that.]]> 3 0 false false Tue Mar 25 21:39:55 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 21:39:55 -0700 2008 3 0 false false Wed Jun 24 12:59:22 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 12:59:22 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2003 Sat Jan 10 19:48:40 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 19:49:03 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Sep 11 21:26:43 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 21:26:43 -0700 2008 0 0 false false Mon Dec 17 15:13:52 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 17 15:13:52 -0800 2007 3 0 false false Sun Oct 07 15:30:11 -0700 2007 Sun Oct 07 15:30:14 -0700 2007 3 0 false false Fri May 11 17:59:13 -0700 2007 Fri May 11 17:59:13 -0700 2007 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=855751