17:48 Jan 08 2018
Times Read: 813
I know in general we don't talk politics here, but I'm gonna tread on that territory for a moment. Please read from a place of compassion and open-mindedness.
A few weeks/months back I saw a Well-Known Internet Vampyre talking about how vampyrism is capitalist by its nature, and vampyres should acknowledge their debt to capitalism.
I can't find the link anymore, which is probably a good thing, tbh. It was one of those articles you click knowing it's going to make you angry (at least if you're me). I didn't publicly disagree, because the OVC on FB is mostly set to Public for some ungodly reason, and because I don't generally enjoy getting into pointless arguments with my elders.
But I read it anyway, and I've been mulling over it since, so I figured I'd write about it some.
I was ready for some Ayn Rand stuff -- "capitalism is the survival of the fittest and we are predators". I can begrudgingly see the argument behind that. (I don't agree, though. Just as we regulate when, where, how, and upon whom we feed, to do so with honor and discretion, so too can we regulate the market.)
But that wasn't it. It was "capitalism is the force that brings you nightclubs and concerts, therefore vampyrism is capitalist".
Breaking down my disagreements with this into several points:
1) This is about as meaningful an argument as "you use a cell phone and a laptop, so you must love capitalism". Others have broken down the problems with this elsewhere, but suffice to say: capitalism is the water we swim in, in the modern West. Just because you take advantage of the best or most useful it has to offer does not mean you like it, or support everything about it, or believe it should be unregulated.
2) Much of vampyrism was birthed out of nightclub culture. It is not synonymous with nightclub culture. You can be a vampyre without ever setting foot in a nightclub.
3) I would also argue that if your vampyrism focuses too much on nightclubs, concerts, and other wild-and-crazy ambient feeding (for psychic vampyres) or hook-ups (for sanguines), this points to a dangerous imbalance in your life. Much of the best and deepest feeding, in my experience as a psychic vampyre, takes place in the context of a romantic relationship or a deep platonic friendship. (If you're a sanguine and feeding from random unscreened bar pickups, you're being wildly unsafe.) None of these deep-feeding relationships are capitalist dynamics, unless you're paying your donors for their service (!).
4) I am generally skeptical of the idea of crystal-clear, ancient, unbroken, literal vampyric lineages. But I think vampyric behavior and outlook are much older than the current scene -- and far predate capitalism.
5) I live in a commune. We have concerts and parties. They can draw upward of a hundred people, with energy to match. Barely any money changes hands, and often there's no money exchanged at all. I feed just fine. You don't need to pay money to attend a big event where the feeding's plentiful and good; you don't need to be a business to host a good time.
If you view your vampyrism as capitalist, that's fine -- although I'd encourage you to push past that. This is IMO something that goes far beyond worldly market forces, and to reduce it to an issue of the Almighty Dollar would seem to cheapen it.
I have a lot of thoughts about reciprocity and energetic ecology, which would arguably serve as counterpoints. Maybe I'll write them up in the coming weeks.
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