On horror, torture and the gothics

I have recently socialized with a teen who enjoys watching blood, cuts himself, sometimes online on a webcam, has considered suicide and calls himself gothic. As if this picture was not bad enough, I realized this is a common trend amongst teenagers these days.
The concepts of horror, torture and even death have suffered interesting changes in the last 200 years. Some people will always have an attraction for pain, either self inflicted or caused to others. Other people enjoy watching. A scary leap happens when fringes become mainstream.
Just a couple of centuries ago, torture was common and a public spectacle. People gathered to see all kinds of pain being inflicted, including death. Today, horror is nothing but entertainment, as true horrors are carefully hidden from the public eye by heavy media sensorship. May be this cleansing helps spread the idea that cruelty is fun and cool.
The object on the left is a knout, a Russian instrument of torture that was used to whip convicts in public. Although made of leather, the tip could cut like a knive and it was usual for the tortured to die from the punishment. A fictional account can be read in Alexander Dumas' "Vaninka", a story included in the work Celebrated Crimes. All the Celebrated Crimes can be read here. A more vivid account by Germain de Languy can be read here. This was not gothic, just life.
Gothic was Ann Radcliff and Matthew Lewis, far more dignified than a lonely teen cutting himself before a web audience of other lonely teenagers. Something is just not right.

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