“When you see a gruesome picture over and over again, it doesn’t really have an effect.”
(Andy Warhol)

A lot of parents worry about violent movies and video games, afraid their children will become desensitized to the terrible images of carnage.

According to Andy Warhol, we should be. This past weekend, I got to see a Warhol exhibit here in Atlanta, and I was struck by one image in particular. He showed an empty electric chair (the same one used to execute the traitorous Rosenburgs at Sing-Sing prison), but he showed it over and over again. By the time you see the whole thing, you forget you’re looking at a horrific instrument of death.

That was Warhol’s point. By reproducing the image, as TV news was beginning to do with Vietnam images every night, Warhol was exposing the power of media to glorify violence, and desensitize it to all of us.

Forget about your kids…How many gun deaths have you seen in your lifetime? How many stabbings? How many violent acts against women?

Peace begins with pause,