At 18 a lad has already witnessed 200,000 murders on TV. He’s grown up well. Where there’s an abundance of arms like in the United States, they don’t think twice. And they do their own little slaughter. In other cases, like in Europe, the dead who are murdered are no longer disturbing. As an adult he can have his daily dose of media without trauma.
Once upon a time the goodie never killed, today he kills to show that he is good. The epicenter of the culture of death on TV is Hollywood. It’s not an anti-American question, simply a fact. Compare a French or Italian “cops and robbers” with a stars and stripes one and do the count of dead bodies.
If we see an injured person on the street as the result of an accident, we cover the eyes of our children. Then at home we delegate the televisionbabysitter. The child goes to his room to watch Hannibal Lecter devouring a brain.
The vision of violence, now at any time of day, can only produce violence. This could be OK for the NRA, the arms company that elected Bush, but not for parents. I am losing the battle with the youngest children. They know better than I do how to kill a man with a knife under the chin. Or how to hang.
Or how to torture, or drown or machine gun. They have seen more blood than the top dog in the hospital of Genoa. Forbid the children to watch TV is a waste of time. A dad can’t be worse than a film on TV.
The use of violence is a refuge from the lack of ideas. Instead of a beautiful naked bottom. Forbidden in the evening slot, there’s a bullet in the middle of the forehead. At the beginning of a film, I would put the number of assassins, say 58, 231. Then you know where you are.
And in the credits at the end, at the side of the names of the actors, the cause of death. To give complete information.
For a bit now, death on TV is making me nauseous. I hope that it is a contagious nausea.
Violence is the last resort of criminals and of film producers. Let’s open the door of our homes and go out and play with our children.

From Beppe Grillo