A few words on Vampires, Morality, and Power

I have always found the idea of Vampires very interesting. Yesterday NPR did an interesting article on Vampires specifically looking at Vampire popularity throughout history. The article addressed the fact that right now, Vampire works are going through a resurgence in popularity. It further ties this popular resurgence and other resurgences of the Vampire cannon to times of change and uncertainty in the general population. The article argued that Vampires are popular now because of economic and environmental uncertainly, in the 1980's because of the Cold War terror, in the 1930's because of the depression, and when Bram Stoker's Dracula was produced because the first big wave of immigration occurring in Great Britain. The strength and immortality of the Vampire is attractive to a society that feels vulnerable.

The article went further though to discuss how the current generation of Vampires are different from those in the past because they are looking for morality. Specifically, we can look at the Vampires in True Blood who want to main stream, join society, and drink exclusively artificial blood. Similarly, we can look to the Cullen family in the Twilight series who survive without taking human lives but rather by drinking animal blood. The article argues that these modern Vampires are searching for morality today because society is searching form morality in a corrupt world in a way that hasn't happened before.

I think the first premis is intersting and true, however, the second premis of this article is a fallacy. Specifically, I believe this anology is false because if we accept the first premis that people are looking for stenght then the second premis that individuals in power are searching for morality. It can't be denied that the Vampire in society is an individual of power. Therefore, I think if the Vampire was a in fact a mirror of modern society then it would be more blood thirsty and unfeeling than ever. We simply are not living in a time enlightenment and compassion. This is especially true for the people in power. Is Vampire CEO being generous to his employees. No. Is Vampire politician putting deminsihing corporate welfare in favor of creating real health care coverage for the people in this country. No. Is war-machine looking for peaceful solutions to the world's problems. I don't think I need to answer that. In today's society to be called liberal is an insult. Furthermore I think that the majority of the people in this world know that our leadership is amoral, greedy and corrupt and expect nothing better from them. It is an old say but true today more than ever, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutly.

I guess Vampires are fictional and so a the moral Vampires are fictional as well. Here is the link to the article if you are interested: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=123115545&sc=fb&cc=fp