Tuesday, March 23, 2010

The metamorphosis of the Vampire Craze

I was thinking lately about the zeitgeist of the people of earth and the Vampire Craze that has been upon us for several years now, the most recent of which is the "Twilight" movie series. As most of us have noticed  the original Bela Lugosi films of Dracula and the Twilight series have almost nothing in common so much has the zeitgeist of the present moviegoer changed from those of the 1930s. Whether this is good or bad or more likely "both" I'm not here to debate.

What is more interesting to me is a thought I have had in the last few days. I'm thinking that as people change more and more the whole new vampire craze has more to do with the uneducated masses coming to terms with the educated, rich and famous living longer and longer and looking like people in their 20s still through proper diet, exercise and plastic surgery. The most famous illustration would be Joan Rivers who I remember being one of the first female comedians to make it really big during the 1950s and 1960s. She was born in 1933 and 77 years old and still looks under 50.  Or Cher who was born in 1946 which makes her 64 on this May 20th and who still looks to be in her 30s.  These kinds of changes work in many people and as the median age of passing goes into the hundreds during the next century it works on the psyche of everyone.

When I grew up most men in their early 40s looked and acted like men in their 60s and 70s today. Lives in general were much harder in the 1950s when I grew up. Most men had been in World War II and had seen so many bad things that almost every man had some form of PTSD(post traumatic stress disorder). It was just accepted that that was how men were then. And this aged the men then quite fast in multiple ways. Though there is still warfare the amounts of men with PTSD are miniscule compared to then so even though society is still affected by these changes they are a much smaller influence.

Another little known fact is that the "Hells Angels" was actually started around Hollister, California by World War II Bomber pilots who could not readjust to society after their crazy lives bombing europe. So todays reality in all ways came from all the strange things that happened then and before.

So sociologically the NEW Vampire craze I actually see as a way for the uneducated masses to cope with all the changes of the educated, rich and famous that trickle down to everyman and everywoman's life eventually.

This whole sociological phenomenon even makes  more sense in a secular Christian society trying to cope with all the various changes in the world.

Do I think that vampires are real? NO. Not at all. I think it is only a metaphor for people trying to cope with unheard of changes in their lives.

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