Lighten our darkness?

We're having a discussion on our Facebook group page about the trend towards "darkness" in contemporary fiction, and whether this is to be praised - or not. From a Christian perspective there is a strong view that we should not be perpetuating the theme of the dark side of life but rather shining light into that darkness. Violence begets violence, whether by word or deed. Wounds unhealed have a nasty habit of being carried forward and used to wound others. It reminded me of something I wrote about Arun Gandhi, who used to travel the world trying to keep alive his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi’s philosophy of non-violence, based on the principles of love and truth. Arun tells the story of the young teacher in one of his lectures who raised the question of ‘the corrupting effect of violent movies, TV shows and obscene and violent music on the young people in America.’ Should they avoid such things, she asked. This, he replied, placed the cart before the horse. Those who live a life of practicing ‘truthfulness’ would not want to watch or listen to any such media in the first instance.
But such a noble life is not so easy for many of us to achieve. We can only aspire to it. We do at least have a choice.