The Mystical vs Analytical ways of examining the vampire

The Mystical vs Analytical ways of examining the vampire experience has been on my mind lately.

The Analytical means seems like the best course of action on the surface, I mean clearly we all want to have well-reasoned conclusions and applying the intellectual scalpel to cut away elements perceived detritus only makes sense. The problem is that analysis takes shape based on the perspective of a complex whole, and the desired outcome the analyst is seeking to discover. By doing this different perspectives and analytical paths must be discarded.

Think of the old story about five blind men describing an elephant by touching different parts.

Analytical reason still needs to be applied, but with the greater understanding that there is more to an elephant than just its tail. Simply because you cannot see more, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.

Still the application of analytical thinking is, in many ways, human nature. When you are driving a car you don’t see the whole of the highway, you see the cars in close proximity and those informational indicators that are important to your currant perception. You don’t need to know the next right will take you to LA, when you are heading to Seattle, so your mind discards it as chaff, and yet you are still aware that you are on a highway.

In regards to getting anything done, we have to focus on a specific problem. We have to apply rational analysis to even know where to start. The issue is not the Rational, it is the use of it, or rather the lack of its use in a manner that actually fits the concept of rational analysis in the first place.

Many people run around the VC talking about how we need to apply critical thinking and rational analysis, and then they basically go around slashing any other perspective or concept that doesn’t meet with their desired end, all the while not actually focusing on that end. The end becomes not about finding a conclusion as much as demonstrating their prowess with a knife. Rather than pairing down their own perspective, they instead simply slash at others and scream about “Critical thinking!”

This is not a means in which real analytical thinking is achieved, it’s simply taking a basic premise and using it as a weapon for self-gratification and ego stroking

“I want scientific evidence!” but rather than seeking it, they spend their time attacking what they consider to be not scientific. “Well before we can get serious scientists to take us seriously we have to ensure that we don’t look like crackpots.”  It’s like taking an axe to all the street signs that aren’t pointing you to Seattle, but not just wasting time with the effort, but also failing to realize the poles are metal. Taking an analytical knife to demystify the vastness of other conjectures, theories and beliefs doesn’t move them any closer to a scientific conclusion.

The issue with the Mystical is much more cut and dry, and yet nearly impossible to draw any conclusion at all. The Mystical view of the VC isn’t testable, it isn’t scientific in the least, and can easily lead to cultist like behaviors and baseless elitism derived purely from irrational and theoretical beliefs systems.

“I am a King of the vampires, my Great Grandfather told me so in a past life visitation!” The mystical can become so irrational that it strains cogency to the point of eliminating it. The Mystical approach, is such a vast forest of beliefs that the only conclusion that is really possible are those that are held in individual beliefs. You believe you are a re-incarnated jabberwocky, I believe you are deluded, but in order for their not to be chaos we will not speak of my beliefs and accept that you have yours, even if they are ridiculous. Why? Because you might turn your intellectual scalpel against my beliefs and only animosity is gained.

How can any system like that remain functional? In short, it really cannot without a lot of tolerance and all the majority of mystically minded people starting to do that same analytical dissection, but to others instead of to themselves.

For me the issue is that we are both turning our gazes in the wrong direction. Both those screaming for analytical reason, and those looking for mystical understanding, spend too much time trying to discredit, or cut loose the chaff and not enough time pairing down to their own desired conclusions. Rather than clear a path through the forest, they want to cut the whole thing down, or get lost in the beauty of the trees.

We can have success however. We have a good example in Merticus Stevens, he didn’t bother and still doesn’t bother, with looking at everyone’s perspective, and instead he spends his efforts toward moving toward his own goals. Often times his perspective is in line with others, but when they don’t, he doesn’t spend a lot of time fighting over who is right, but instead moves forward with his own pairing down and drawing closer to the various conclusions he is seeking.

Perhaps the issue isn’t Analytical Vs Mystical, perhaps the real issue is distraction vs determination.