Sometimes the most descriptive way to describe a feeling is by
analogy, because there just doesn't exist a good word. At least
not one that I know. In the case of an American in Europe, I
believe there is no better way to describe how I feel than as
Louis encountering Armand in Interview with a Vampire.
I know, it's kind of an old movie, but it's always been one
that's spoken to me. The human lifespan is so fleeting and yet
we treat it like forever.
Armand is old, beautiful and has sucked the life out of countless
people to stay that way. He has a system for lining them up for
the slaughter, much as the Walrus and the Carpenter shucking the
clams. This is Europe. This is society put above individual
lives - a beautiful edifice decaying from the inside. Europe
doesn't make people anymore; every year there are fewer births
than deaths. So they much draw them in, from the Middle East,
from Africa, from Asia, from the Americas.
Louis is a naïve American, still flush with vitality while
denying the fundamental truth that he too as an animal must
kill to survive. Louis is tempted by the beauty of Armand.
Even after he loses the things most valuable to him while
Armand stands by doing nothing, Louis is still tempted by
Armand. Try to remember I'm speaking in analogy here despite
the strong homoerotic undertones of Anne Rice's work.
We often think of ants and bees as organisms, but this is a
false notion. They are merely parts of the mound and the hive,
which are the true organisms. The society, not the individual,
is the entity of life's focus. In these societies the vast
majority of constituents are female. The males are haploid,
that is, they only have one copy of genes because that is all
that is needed for reproduction and that is all they are used
for. This also means that all the sisters by the same father share
75% of their genes, whereas any of their offspring would only
share 50%. This is why a queen who mates with a single male is
evolutionarily stable. Such a society needs only a single man,
and he is often cast aside after his sperm has been collected
in the queen. In norsk the word for woman, kvinne, is
cognate with queen.
In Europe the society is put first and the leaders of the
major European countries do not have children. Not Merkel. Not Macron.
Not May. Not Gentiloni. Feminism has created a western world
in which women are the sole arbiteurs of whether children are
created or allowed to live thereafter, but evolution put lust
in men to keep the species going. Now many women choose a
career instead of motherhood rather than the more difficult
path of both. Society is only too happy to take the fruits of
their labors and provide them with ease and enjoyments. This
is made even easier by saved wealth of prior generations being
funneled down to fewer and fewer children. On the flipside are
places where women are still subjugated, where there is no
"right to choose" to kill the children they've created. Europe
imports people from those places to replace the ones their
society no longer makes.
The streets of Bergen are beautiful. The cathedrals have free organ
concerts. The sea is bracingly cold and beautiful. The mountains
are at once a challenge and a solace. I can walk out my door
and be treated to a half dozen languages on any given day. The
beer is expensive, but good. It all feels right. It all feels
good, like a warm, safe duvet I can wrap myself in while I
enjoy the cold evening breeze. Alone, but a part of society - a
happy clam indeed.
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