I recently read an article about penny dreadfuls. The penny dreadful were books, written in the 1830s, and sold for a penny a book. What's interesting is that the topics covered were very similar to many of the video games we see today.
And they were actually often blamed for violent behavior.
According to the BBC article I read,
"The press, lawyers and clergymen strove to link such literature with juvenile crime and degeneracy, blaming it for violence, robberies and suicides."
See http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160502-the-shocking-tale-of-the-penny-dreadful for the full story.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 (NIV) says "What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun."
It occurred to me how, when humans commit horrible acts, we as a society are often surprised and look for a reason or someone/something to blame. We seek to find an answer, point a finger, find a cause so we can remove it.
But the simple fact is, when we see the acts we are simply seeing the sinful nature of the fallen race of man.
Society isn't getting worse, there really were no "good old days". Sinful man, unrestored without God, will always look the same.
The cause of all the violence is always sin and the answer to sin is always Jesus Christ.
"For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 6:23 (NIV)
