Random musings on suffering

I was sitting here wondering to myself...what is it that makes something taboo?? I know in the past many things have been dubbed taboo by religions and governments, for example paedophilia, which before the rise of christianity was the norm in Ancient Greece, as well as homosexuality (they regarded it as combining wisbom and youth; something seldom achieved by anyone). However, what really got my mind spinning was the idea of sadomasichism. Something still commonly regarded as taboo and by many simply incomprehendable. But one needs to simply look around them for all of two minutes to notice that in almost every form possible suffering is exploited and its audiences take pleasure out of it. People go on chat shows to share the pain of their situations (something that has always seemed quite narcassistic to me, as enjoyment seems to be taken from their pain and the reaction it provokes in others). It is further seen in programmes such as Big Brother and on a more respectable level in the news.
The simplest explanation would be that it allows people to witness pain, misfortune and even atrocities from the comfort of their own homes, safely percieving an outcome they would never hope to happen to them, but this seems overly simplistic, there must be something universal in its existence as in any country, of any economic status and regardless of the political ideologies that lay the foundation of their society, this same occurance is found. Further, due to the universal experience of suffering that each person feels at any point in their lives, it would seem more logical that we would have more compassion for others and less interest in suffering of others.
On a psychological level, this could be more easily explained. It could be that due to our various complexes and insecurities that we, to some extent, feel deserving of pain and feel that others are deserving of this too, for without the existence of others we would not have the various complexes and insecurities. IS IT HUMAN NATURE TO BE IN CONTINUOUS COMPETITION WITH OTHERS AND CONSEQUENTLY OURSELVES? ONLY RESULTING IN PSYCHOLOGICAL COMPLEXES AND DELUSION? Surely evolution would have ridden us of such a self destructive habit!??
... I JUST DON'T KNOW!!