Vampire Society

How much blood have you drained in your life?

When I last wrote on vampires, I began by discussing the book that started it all, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and by teasing out the central principle of vampirism – a rampant addiction that compels them to do evil in its name, giving them far less of a free will than humans do. Their choice is only between means, not ends, namely, rapacious consumption of the human feedstock, wanton use of their power, and avoiding their banes – sunlight, garlic, a wooden stake to the heart, beheading, and crossing a threshold uninvited.

This naturally raises the question of how the vampire story has become so ingrained in our psyche. How is it that to this day, the vampire myth has retained its power, where many other mythical creatures have waned and fallen by the wayside? There is no shortage of other myths that could break out into the world – the wendigo, for example – but why is it that the vampire joins the werewolf, the zombie, and the dragon as a common cultural touchstone?

I would like to begin by thanking Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight and Hirohiko Araki’s Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure for bringing us the iconic vampires Edward Cullen and Dio Brando. The former is a heroic spin on the vampire, whose character arc revolves around controlling his desire and the struggle between his love of a human and his role as a monster, while the latter is a villain, starting with unbridled ambition as a human and literally abandoning his humanity in order to gain greater power as a vampire, with all the weaknesses that implies. These and many other fictional vampires[1] have helped keep the archetype in the public consciousness, as a fearsome reminder of the dangers of a charismatic psychopath.

Speaking of charismatic psychopaths, some reputable institutions think that this might be a group that is somewhat predisposed to success, combining the callous ability to do what needs to be done, the charisma to emotionally manipulate and convince others, and the fearlessness to take on responsibilities others likely balk at, these people can fill an important and necessary niche in any modern organization – the role of fearless, ruthless, go-getter.

That is certainly an upgrade from “monstrous bloodsucking vampire”, and it certainly captures their devilish charms and manipulative abilities. That this also describes many of the fake-it-till-you-make-it heroes of our time – cryptocurrency scammers, private equity pirates, investors in rent raises, and influencers of every stripe – may be a cause for slight concern and further inquiry. Why is it that this kind of people are allowed to climb the ladder and reach the levers that control us all?

In my opinion, it is because power has its own logic, a logic that is incomprehensible when viewed through any other lens. Not only that, that logic is so powerful, and the threat to the power-owning individual so large, that rather than power being subordinate to the individual, the individual is subordinated to power, on pain of loss, injury, or even death. The vampire, in my opinion, represents the ultimate subordination to power – one who possesses plenty of power, but is bound entirely by its rules and specific logic, who is power’s conduit, not power’s master. He is the avatar of the totalitarian side of organizing principles, bending everything to maximize his coercive force, both from greed for it and fear of others who have it.

The Vampire’s Power

In my previous post on power dynamics, I talked about power in the social sense – the ability to compel or coerce others to do or not do things, as well as convincing others of this fact.  Because of this belief-based nature, power comes with a paradox – you must use it in order to establish it, but you should not overuse it, lest its limitations come to light and the belief disappear, or a countermeasure found. As we saw previously, the vampire has many supernatural powers, transforming into bats, commanding beasts, supernatural charm, and an intimidating assortment of abilities, but the one thing we established they are unable to do is master themselves.

Dracula in his novel is animated by his greed. Beginning from his native land in Transylvania, where he is starved and weak thanks to the destitute population, he hatches a plan to move to London using the aid of the firm Jonathan works for. His goal is to run rampant in London, for the pickings are slim in his native land, and he wishes to test out his true power. Despite coming from a long line of noble lords of the area, his power and stature have decreased on the world stage, and one cannot help but feel he longs for such glory. Thus, he sets off to London, but things are off for such a noble personage, for he travels with no entourage. He leaves home his brides that share his condition and lust for power or any of his gypsy lackeys, taking only fifty boxes of earth from his home country, for he can only rest well when in the embrace of his native land. These boxes are set to be distributed around the city, secreted away in warehouses and abandoned homes rather than at his London mansion, as one would expect. As we know, Dracula is a vampire, whose true plan is to become a predator in the city of London. Armed with this distributed network of hiding places, otherworldly charm, ostensibly noble standing, and supernatural powers, he is set to turn the city of London into his own personal feeding ground – which thankfully does not come to pass.

Much here is instructive – both of how vampires gain their power, how they keep it, and how they use it. We see that Dracula is in full control of his home turf, the Brides held by thrall, and the gypsies held by money. He sets off alone to increase his personal power rather than sharing with others – the sad tale of Renfield proves that Dracula has no friends or allies. He brings with him his boxes of earth from his homeland, symbolically representing an import of the values and culture of his homeland, without which he has no power. When the vampire hunters sabotage these boxes, Dracula is forced to flee home, for his powers wane if he does not rest in a bed of the earth from his home.

Most important of all, though, is a point I often repeat – the vampire is a slave to power, and not its master. While powerful, he works only within the confines of what his power allows, moving at night, sleeping in his home earth, and working via a combination of subterfuge and cunning. In the same way, power has its own logic, and the first principle of power is that one must not only convince others of it, but accept any challenge that comes against it. In the same way that fictional vampires must take others’ lifeblood and retreat to their home, the vampires of real life must force others to believe in their power and demonstrate that belief, for the benefit of any who have doubts.

The look of a master, but a slave to his desires. Dracula from Castlevania.

Easy examples - fake news and cancel culture, along with the general Woke climate in modern culture. We are no longer allowed to have dissenting hypotheses or opinions that are not officially sanctioned by The Narrative. Ask anyone about social media and a torrent of outrage will follow, talking about misinformation on X, Boomers on Facebook, and the fake news that is Fox/CNN/MSNBC/RT/CNA/Al-Jazeera/Alex Jones/Miles Mathis/Insert Source Here. Frustration at why these people are allowed to speak, and what happened to the good old days when we could all agree on something, rather than fight over everything. Contempt for those who refuse to listen to our preferred sources and listen to the truth - the world is burning, carbon dioxide emissions are to blame, endless diversity and inclusion are the future, so on, so forth. Asking where our principles and ideas have gone in this brave new world, and mulling over societal divorce from those who are wrong on the Internet. Doing everything possible to convince themselves that they and those are agree with are right, righteous, and powerful because of it.

I’ve written about that before, but I digress.

At the core of this is a simultaneous dependence and suspicion of others, and from there a desire to have power over or resist power, no matter what happens. As the average individual becomes more and more powerless, unable to change the world around them for fear of losing what they have, they become more vicious. The law grows more invasive and constrictive, the budget more dire, and the nightly news bombards us with stressors and puts us on edge. Any disagreement is now viewed as a challenge and every rebuttal a threat against what little we yet have. Rather than viewing others as equals, who can be harmlessly wrong, we now view the world with only two kinds of people - the powerful and the powerless, the doers and the done unto, those who get to set belief and those who must believe.

The vampires and the thralls.

Chained to the World Above

Despite their seeming freedom of action, both the vampire and the ruthless go-getter are in chains – not chains of law or means, as the rest of us wear, but the primordial chains of power, whose first imperative is the cultivation and maintenance of belief in power. In order to do this, there are two subsidiary rules. First, power should be used minimally, in order to avoid inviting the question of whether it is believable. Second, once used, power should be deployed maximally, crushing opposition as completely and convincingly as possible. To demonstrate this, it is enough to have some examples.

As long as the media maintains partisan utility and advertising dollars via views, they can continue to publish any stories that they want. Therefore, the media will always attempt to publish profitable or attractive information in a manner that we either take as unbiased or agree with.

As long as governments maintain authority through military force and economic progress, they can continue to tax and make laws over the populace. Therefore, the government will always attempt to convince us both of the sanctity of borders and law and order as well as economic progress uplifting us all.

As long as large corporations maintain their dominant position in markets, they can charge higher prices or prevent competitors from contesting their power. Therefore, these large corporations will always support regulation and other anticompetitive practices that raise the cost of entry into the industry.

As long as the highly-paid employee keeps their employer convinced of their usefulness, they can continue to reap their cushy compensation package. Therefore, they will work hard and follow any messaging the employer sends without fail.

As long as we, individually, do not use our power, however small, in a way those more powerful do not like, power will not be used against us. Therefore, we will simply convince ourselves that we can get along to go along, and support the maintenance of the status quo.

That is the paradox of power – it is pursued in the name of freedom and prosperity, but that prosperity simply chains those who achieve it. In exchange for surrendering their freedom to decide what is done and how, the vampires gain greater and greater power by climbing up the ladder, making decisions that those below them have not the heart to make. Power comes with the caveat that if you wish to keep it, it will slowly take over your life, and if you do not keep it once you have it, those who want more of it will come for you. The classic tropes of killing even distant relations to kings or leaving no witnesses to an important crime are testaments to this rule.

Vampires, however, embrace the logic of power, perfectly fine with compelling and being compelled, and therefore gain more of it. This naturally allows them to rise higher and higher, climbing the ladders of power with the lifeblood of their ever-growing pool of thralls. This can be good or bad for the thralls, but most importantly it is necessary for the survival of the power source, be it a government, a business, or a social media presence. Without the vampire, the power source could not grow and reach a grand scale.

Vampires are therefore naturally found in the highest ranks, taking a portion of our lifeblood in exchange for protection from chaos and competition in the form of profits, taxes, loyalty, and many more. Like thralls, we obey their demands, knowing that in many cases, the devil you know is more bearable than the devil you don’t. While we mount resistance to particular deeds or methods of organizaiton that our vampire leaders use, it is all fundamentally quibbling over the allocation of blood. The division of labor and specialization inherent in making things efficient and perform at scale necessitates middlemen, protectors, organizers - all of which must drain their livelihood from the individual strivers.

While the vampires are not strictly necessary at the individual scale, they are indispensable once something scales up to become a profession, or a trade. Take the example of funeral parlors and gravediggers - an industry literally dependent on death. Death is a surprisingly big business, involving picking out a funeral home, coffin, graveyard, transporting the deceased, and so on being valued quite highly. Some may object to this and call it profiteering, without them, we would not have graveyards, choices of headstone, engraving, cremation, and so on. Without the costs they charge and the profits they make, their inputs will be repurposed by someone who will. Without them, we’d have to have neighbors, friends, priests, and so on volunteer to come and do it - in other words, to do it ourselves.

The Centralization of Vampirism

As the old saying goes, power abhors a vacuum, and when power arises, it is quickly contested by other power-holders, in an endless game of maintaining belief in their particular form of power. This constant competition, ideally, would keep the vampires’ exactions in check, allowing thralls to simply switch vampires. However, with the centralization of the modern state and the consolidation of business empires, fewer and fewer vampires control more and more of society, depressing the condition of all. Advertising and information control allow those vampires already in charge to crowd out potential challengers, with social media and other information-centralizing operations cementing this trend.

Rather than London, we will all become Transylvania. Dracula, secure in his castle, will suck us all to oblivion before one day abandoning us to our fate, when we are no longer productive. Whether we are the Brides who serve as his assistants and pets, or the gypsies who do his work, the vampire cares not for his servants, and will discard them the moment it is dictated by the central motto of power - maximize what you own, guard it jealously, and share it with nobody.

Maximize your views and the strength of your image, never allow the people to not be angry or confused and therefore with no need for news, and never allow other outlets to share in their need for information.

Maximize the government’s legal rights, never reduce the scope of laws, and do not share it with other governments, or even other parts of the same government.

Maximize the company’s profits, defend your market advantage as much as possible, and maintain ownership as much as possible.

Maximize your performance ratings, defend your social and professional standing, and gatekeep your profession from those who would dilute your value.

Maximize others’ opinions of you, particularly the powerful, maintain your reputation as “a good and reliable asset-person”, and defend your position by maintaining what little power you have.

I’m sure you can think of your own examples. The goal is to ensure that you draw enough blood to maintain your rank, and take any opportunitty to drain enough to advance. It’s a bat-drain-bat world out there, and the feeding frenzy just keeps getting faster and faster - one that I believe we cannot escape.

Symbiosis

Vampires, can’t live with them, can’t live without them. Those bloodsuckers are worse than mosquitoes, who at least don’t kill (malaria or dengue fever aside) or drain you dry. As I’ve shown, these power-hungry bloodsuckers are a necessary evil of modern life, indispensable to the workings of our highly interconnected society. The question this naturally invites is - where does it end?

Does it end at the murder of plants and animals for our sustenance? I would hope not.

Does it end with a Gini coefficient of 1, with one infinitely rich person and everyone else owning nothing (and being happy)? I certainly hope not.

I do not have an answer to this question, and I doubt there is a universal one. Much ink, after all, has already been spilled about absolute power corrupting absolutely, checks and balances in governance to prevent malservation or worse, and on how much power any one person should have to begin with. You could study power and influence for a lifetime, I feel, and come no closer to an answer to this question. I can, however, offer a suggestion.

The threshold for the tolerance for vampires should be at a level where vampires continue to grow the overall stock of thralls, using their power to improve conditions for their thralls. As in Peter Turchin’s concept of elite overproduction, where overproduction of vampiric elites results in competition and a damaging of society’s stocks of people, goods, and trust, vampires should use every method to improve the thralls’ position, and thereby their own. When they fail to do this, they begin to cannibalize their thrall-stock and reduce the size of the pie in favor of grabbing a bigger share, making for natural good times and bad times, as they devour each other - after taking bites out of the rest of us.

An inevitable oscillation about a trendline, concentrating wealth among the most powerful of the vampires by virtue of survival.

---

[1] Special mention goes to the rapping vampire cop on patrol with her trusty deputies, keeping the streets safe from unruly gangs of fairies.