From: bruce@coos.dartmouth.edu (Bruce K. Johnson)
Newsgroups: alt.vampyres
Subject: Re: Vampires-evil?
Date: 10 Nov 92 17:13:28 GMT
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH

Gocek.Henr801C@Xerox.COM (The Peacemaker) writes:


>>What was evil again? ...
>>Being evil is state dependant, or some such. ...

>I can handle the concept of non-evil vampires.  In theory, vampires don't
>have to kill people to get blood.  But once they start doing people, no
>matter how sympathetic we might be to their fight for survival, killing
>people is a bad thing and must be stopped.


I'm not too convince of this, that killing people for survival is a bad thing; especially when I go to my local meat market to pick up a pound of raw beef and
realize that someone out there is getting paid every day to slaughter this meal for me and I don't even give a second thought towards the animal's life that
so graciously died for me. 

In other words, I think that it is hypocritical of us to regard the act of murder on humans only.  Is it really EVIL to kill another person if it is for the
intention of eating and surviving.  This is what we generally do when hunting animals isn't it?  Well, from a vampire's perspective, isn't it the same thing?
And this holds for all meat eaters.  Just because one doesn't hunt (for whatever reason, generally, though, the reason that one couldn't bear to hunt a cute
animal and then skin it and finally eat it; ie, the butcher gets paid to distance us from the act of killing; but in supporting the butcher, we too support the
act of killing...) doesn't mean that one is free of the moral obligations that
are connected to the taking of an animal's life, whatever that animal may be.

I don't mean to say that I would willingly lay down my life so that someone else can have a meal of me; rather I would probably fight like hell for survival;
BUT, I don't believe that the taking of another's life for survival is evil.   

>>Now, to another vampire I doubt that a vampire would come across as
>>being too terribly evil.

>I'm not convinced of this.  Do serial killers think that other serial killers
>are swell guys?  Evil is evil.  Just because a creature is evil doesn't mean
>he or she can't recognize other evil creatures.

But is the creature really evil (the vampire)?  Again, to use the same analogy, a hunter doesn't regard another hunter as evil, though he may be on guard and
distrust the other hunter.  A serial killer is a bad analogy, for the serial killer's general intention is man slaughter for interesting psychological reasons
(ie, mentally insane relative to the rest of his/her society).  The vampire isn't necessarily mentally insane relative to his/her society.  Furthermore, as the
hunter enjoys a nice hunt and the kill (not for food this time, but for the entertainment value), so too the vampire may be justified in fulfilling his lust for
the hunt... 

>>It seems terrifically inane to quibble over trivialities of such
>>minimal proportions however.

>I'm not convinced of this either, and YOU took the time to post an article.
>The question of whether human-killing vampires are inherently evil is crucial.
>(The answer is yes, but it's the question that's important.)

In discussing whether a vampire is evil the definition of what evil really is should be agreed upon first.  So, I don't think that these things are necessarily
trivialities of such minimal proportion.  And yes, you did take the time to post an article...