If you were to listen to the chat going around in underground venues, you’d think there was a coming revolution suggesting vampires might be making their presence more active in the world. And with the definition of vampirism spiraling in several different directions, it might be a good question to reassess what it means to be a creature of the night. Is a vampire revolution something to be concerned about? Or are these relatively peaceful individuals who wish simply for more recognition?
Two hundred years ago the term vampire was almost exclusively in reference to supernatural entities that had to follow strict rules and carried with them an immutable sense of evil. This evil was one of the key aspects of the vampire mythos. As time progressed, and the horror genre transformed, so did its most iconic creatures. Frankenstein became a motley collection of various genetic experiments, aliens became more mysterious and shadowy than ever, and vampires became a genre of their own with various titles being the driving force behind the fiction industry. And evil became replaced simply with “dark.”
To judge vampires harshly these days is no longer a matter of morality, but merely a challenge to aesthetics. The only part that has many people rolling their eyes is the claim that vampires are inherently supernatural beings that go by more or less the same rules that living humans do. Of course this too has changed with time and vampires today normally have to deal with the same problems we all do. Their transmutation into a supernatural being has largely been a spiritual one, different only in the intangible aspects that are overwhelmingly obvious to some and obscure or overly mystical to others. Various groups use conflicting definitions and a pantheon derived from popular subcultures and their own personal convictions.
But with all the talk of a vampire revolution sparking, is there any real chance of one starting? Not only is it possible, such a revolution seems inevitable but with one difference. It will not be the vampire subculture changing the world, but the other way around. Vampires have been largely accepted and “embraced” by a world its members would ordinarily despise. With their membership inflating with people they would normally never associate with, these older members of the vampire subculture will find themselves suddenly no longer feeling like a band of lonely wanderers in a sea of faces never understanding them. Instead they will feel uncomfortably like they are in a room full of mimicking interlopers.
Unfortunately, when subcultures find themselves inundated with new members there are traditionally two ways for its individuals to go. The first possibility is the older members will recognize the influx of people looking for an aesthetic they find appealing. These members will then change their name and work in the subculture’s subculture, driving themselves deeper underground to cohabit with others who have sought the “real” vampire culture. The other possibility, this one far more frightening, is that some members will be driven to more extreme acts in order to set themselves apart within the community. They could very well join or start their own cults and even commit acts of violence against others within the community in an attempt to “purge” it of what they see as wrong with the subculture. Thankfully, most members of the various vampire subcultures are still reasonable people.