Vampiric Narcissism IV: The Parasitic Aristocracy

It’s not a coincidence that the modern vampire is often depicted as an aristocrat. This image (which is loosely based on the real-life Lord Byron), has been attributed to stories surrounding ‘certain members of the British aristocracy in post-Enlightenment Europe’. The behaviour of these individuals likely altered the folklore among the European peasantry, changing the image of the vampire from a rural creature to the ‘fashionably pallid aristocrat’.

This peasant prejudice against the aristocracy was likely due to fundamental differences in their behaviour. But what is this difference? It has been argued that an aristocracy is distinct from other kinds of elites (most recently by the controversial Costin Alamariu) in that they hold manual labour in contempt, while privileging war, intelligence and cruelty:

an aristocracy is generally defined as a regime of virtue, and that the two chief virtues of primitive Homeric aristocracy were andreia and phronesis, standing originally for prowess in battle and ability to give good counsel in assembly. These two virtues, geared toward action and war-making, are valued also by other aristocracies throughout history and across the world — the example of the Tutsi has been given in the first chapter, who similarly understand themselves as brave in battle, politically sophisticated, refined, and…