Economical Free Will (at home w/ the parasite)

Welcome to my humble abode.

How we invite in parasites is a very curious thing. It seems odd that more often than not we put ourselves in positions to be parasited and taken advantage of. Rickles speaks of the human’s desire to be parasited when discussing the fact that a vampire must be invited into one’s home. This aspect of a vampire is something that is very contradicting to the norm when thinking of a parasite. The usual connotation that comes with a parasite is something that is unwanted, a burden on one’s life and livelihood. Rickles then sets us up to wonder: If a vampire must be invited in to be able to parasite you (something we shouldn’t want), then how are they so successful (the proof of their success coming from the human’s obsession with them)? One can come to a tentative conclusion that us humans want to be parasited, we do not feel complete until there is something inside us or something branching off of our business.

In intimate relationships the parasite is an ever-present figure. It is the flea that inhabits our mind and body, controlling a good portion of our actions and thoughts. Those who we are in relationships with influence who we want to spend time with, and even what we eat. Even if one likes to believe that they are a separate entity, the opposite party, or significant other influences us and puts us in situations that question free will. As Stephen reminds us in his “Identity Interrupted (Parasites) blog.

“Some time ago there was written on the board the question: Who are we when we write? With the intriguing and frightening knowledge that parasites may be able to manipulate our emotions or even our complex behavior, the question may just as well be: Who are we? Is free will even an option any more?”

So if we have this illusion of free will that parasites can exploit, maybe there is an illusion of a home that vampires can exploit. Whose definition of a home sets the standard for the relationship between a vampire and his prey? Is it the guest that sets the stage, in that case the coffin would be home and everything but the already dead is fair game, or does the host create the definition of a home.

If we look at the second option than this rule that governs the vampire becomes even more ambiguous. The spectrum of what a home is could range from that of a homeless man to a cowboy at home on the “range”, or to a patriot who considers their country home. How does the host argue this point to the guest in an attempt to fend off an attack, and if the conversation comes down to logistics and is drawn out in politics it no longer seems like much of an attack. However, it seems more often than not the parasite eventually gets in and we become the victim, the victim of the parasite and the victim of free will.

Rickles makes it a strong point that the parasite easily becomes at home in our economy. These types of parasites hangout unnoticed in our home (economy) for a long time before manifesting themselves, before taking all that they can from the host leaving it weak and fighting for life. This parasite has begun to show it self in the economy of Greece. Greece is in the middle of a financial crisis with bureaucratic parasitism that dwarfs what we have recently seen in the United States. After taking loans on top of loans from banks that helped the country reclassify and recategorize their debt in ways in which it would essentially not need to be paid back, the country is on the brink of bankruptcy and threatening the value of the Euro, and therefore all the other countries in the European Union. The parasite that manifests itself in these large banks enticed its host (Greece) with promises of profit and essentially free money, insuring the idea of a perpetually growing economy. The economy then took a pause, Greece’s debt was called in and the parasite was revealed. Now, in a time of economic crisis created by the banks the parasite continues to try and profit from it’s host. Nelson D. Schwartz and Eric Dash of The New York Times describes the situation very poetically (poetry is in the eye of the beholder).

Bets by some of the same banks that helped Greece shroud its mounting debts may actually now be pushing the nation closer to the brink of financial ruin… These contracts, known as credit-default swaps, effectively let banks and hedge funds wager on the financial equivalent of a four-alarm fire: a default by a company, or in the case of Greece and entire country. If Greece reneges on its debts, traders who own these swaps stand to profit. “It’s like buying fire insurance on your neighbor’s house – you create an incentive to burn down the house,” said Philip Gisdakis, head of credit strategy at UniCredit in Munich.

The head honchos in Greece, under some perceived free will, invited the parasite to lay its head for the night, but only to figure out that the parasite will not leave, but multiply until there is no more room and it must move on.

With no particular direction.

We love vampires

The projection of a vampire is the outcast of society. The vampire is in the in wrong preying on those of us who are good, god-fearing, helpless people. The vampire is the threat that stems from the wrong. It is the vampire who is the alcoholic, the murderer, the rapist, or he who commits suicide. As Rickles describes, the vampire is the social outcast, one that we feel must be conquered and put to rest. This perception of a vampire still exists in our culture today, but it is changing.

Today’s media is glorifying the creature of the night. The vampire is changing from a creature to be feared, he is becoming one to be desired even before the first bite. With the Twilight series and shows such as “True Blood”, the vampire who was once the social outcast is now standing in the spotlight in a whole new way. The attention that is focused on the vampire is no longer one that wants to see him vanquished. The attention is now directed to befriending vampires. In essence the recent depictions of vampires are desensitizing us to the downsides of something that wants to suck our blood, we are going through the process of accepting and romanticizing the outcast. Our body is accepting the parasite.

Are we approaching a time where vampires and humans can live side-by-side, accepting the vampire for what and who he is and no longer labeling him as a social outcast who is harbored in a foreign land. I have seen this cultural acceptance during my summer job at The Viewpoint Inn in Oregon that was the filming sight for a few of the scenes in the first Twilight movie. Day in and day out over the summer I saw fans of the vampires coming to the Inn and hoping to get a glimpse of the area that was once blessed with the aura of vampires. These fans of Twilight would make the pilgrimage to the site of the vampire, but unlike the trek that John Harker once made these people are coming support and give praise to the vampire. These people are not there to exterminate the devilish creature they are there to feed him.

Even if our cultures view of the vampire has changed, it is hard for me to believe that he himself has made much of a change. For the vampire is an undead undying creature that sees time race by never able to find a foothold, a perpetual outcast. So is this cultural change one that our society has chosen, or is it that the vampire has used his time over the years wisely. He has infected those of significance, parasiting those at the top so as to make less work for himself. I don’t find it hard to believe that the use of the media to desensitize us humans to vampires is anything other than a ploy by the vampire himself to make us do the footwork. What would make a vampire happier than having hysterical women in search of him, so all he has to do is sit back and wait. And it is the women who are hysterical. The future brides are already knocking on the counts door. Ready for an answer.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NIj8VK67W4

Why the women some may ask. Well beyond the obvious of the Count Dracula and his many wives, the vampire’s lust for women. It seems that it is the infected women who control with the greatest of ease the rest of the humans, using the power of seduction and lust to lure and take advantage of the male libido as well as being able to befriend and infiltrate more women. In this way, by doing his part to infect the women who are captivated by the new depiction of him it is a no lose situation for the vampire. The vampire gets his pick of the women who are desensitized to his image, who then go out and do the bulk of the work for him.

It seems that the creature who has been pinned and stereotyped as a demon for so many years has used his everlasting life wisely, playing and preying on the mind of us. It seems as if the vampire has taken the centuries of abuse and persecution badly and is now coming back to steal the women and control society how he likes it. Almost as if he has a direct line of circulation to our bodies, feeding us what he wants and filtering out what he doesn’t. He is the romantic who tugs at our heartstrings, however is it he who has changed or us?

The parasite within us

From our reading, Serres has made it clear that the human species is a parasite. We cannot sustain ourselves and rely on the bounty of the earth, harvesting grains and vegetables and creating space for herds of animals to grow big and fat so that we can bring them to slaughter; taking the energy that the sun and earth have provided is the only way humans can survive. Other than being a parasite to our earth Serres has also made it clear that we are parasites in social relationships and situations as well. The host to the guest and the guest to the host, one takes from the other, one lives off of the other. As I have been reading the work of Serres and can see the argument that Serres is making I have begun to think that the human’s parasitical relationship can be broken down one more level. We are parasites to the world, parasites to each other, and could it be that we are even parasites to ourselves.

There are so many preconceived thoughts, situations, and roles that we come out of the shoot hardwired for. These stereotypes and roles play on our actions in everyday life. Whether we succeed and fulfill theses roles or not our emotions are affected and our mental state is affected as well. Success and failure builds our “character”, and these social situations weigh on our minds even if the relationship is one within our own minds. Our mind becomes a parasite on our body and our body becomes a parasite to our mind, the mind causing actions and the body changing thoughts.

All humans have similar aspirations throughout their life. Most strive to complete various goals, be involved in some community relationship, and have a utilitarian aspect to their lives. These events of our lives are looked at as a linear progression. Getting better and building from one level up to the next. The desire or thoughts cause our body to take action, but the actions don’t always live up to the expectations that we have built for them. When we succeed we are satisfied, content, happy with our self and the outcome, and all our previous effort is validated. This validation gives confidence to take the next step and our mind is at ease. When we fail to reach our goals or the next step is not what we had expected thoughts of “why?” and “for what?” come to mind, we are disappointed and in the future are less likely to take risks and to put ourselves out of our comfort zone. This comfort zone is where everyone likes to live trying to spend as much time in the median area as possible and while reducing the number of outlier events. What expectations our mind creates affect what actions our body makes, and in turn the actions our body makes will in the future affect what expectations we build for ourselves.

Some expectations are ingrained in us from birth. The expectation that life is a linear progression is a common one. In this mindset we move up the stairs of life, thinking that the future always holds a brighter light than the one we currently have. An example of a common progression through life goes from adolescence, to college, to a good job, a companion, marriage, children, and retirement. How is our mind and body affected when this progression is not what we expected? Doubt encompasses our mind in these situations, for example if one is unable to conceive a child – What is wrong with me, with us, with this relationship? – and the same if one cannot retire – Will I be working like this for the rest of my life, where is the rest that I have earned? – our mind begins to feed the fire of doubt and the melancholy feeling can spread from mind to body. This concept of depression is an obvious example of the mental state that sucks the life from the body. It is a physical state that stems from a failure to fulfill the mental expectation of a linear progression. The only cause of this physical state is the preconceived notion of something different, the mental parasite that feeds information and creates an expectation for the physical self.

The power that the mind has on the body is very strong, but the body can also exert a force on the mind to satisfy and quell the ever-present narrative. Over my weekend spent at my grandparent’s retirement home I observed many actions that come from the human’s need to be useful and the power that movement has over the mind. Even as the physical capabilities of my grandfather weaned and his cognitive state deteriorated his personal drive to be useful or productive remained strong. In his mid-nineties my grandpa still has the motor skills to be self-supportive, but his ability to express a complete thought is no longer with him. As a man who spent most of his life in a career using his skill of communication rather than physical skill, the loss of useful communication seems to give him pain that a large part of the meaning to his life has been lost. To combat this mental pain he has taken on the task of folding and saving his napkins from every meal. This task, although small, in some way has given meaning to his daily life; a goal to complete that he is capable of. The physical movement and physical accomplishment that comes with the task of folding his napkins sustains the mental need to be productive. The physical movements of the host body exert a force stronger than the power of the guest that is the mind, therefore allowing his mind to find some accomplishment from the days past.

The interrelationship between mind and body is a push and pull relationship. The mental expectations push and pull the physical being, giving strength or weakness to the body. At the same time the body has the power to complete and give meaning to actions and events in an effort to feel content in one’s mind. This is a powerful relationship of parasitism that seems to make the strong stronger and the weak weaker.