We Are All Vampires by Rute Serafim & Karl Swainston
We are all vampires, but some of us are more vampires than others. We’re not talking about the blood-curdle-drinking vampires of the past.; no, the modern vampire is more sophisticated and is everywhere in society, seeking only the energy of another person. This contemporary and contemptuous creature will be a husband, a wife, a partner, or a boss in the workplace, daily draining their victims of life.
CHAPTER 7 - VAMPIRE RISING by Rute Serafim & Karl Swainston
Vampire Rising
How is it possible for successful vampires to rise to the top, gaining positions of power?
For a significant part of the population, change is a dreadful experience. As one great writer put it, ‘Change is the despot of mankind.’
We feel more comfortable when everything is solid and expected. We prefer to avoid being surprised by change and the uncertainty it brings with it. We would instead settle down quietly and know everything is in order; everything is as it should be, and nothing unexpected will put us out of sync.
Vampires have an insatiable need to feed on the positive energies of others. The creatures must get to the top. Being at the top means they have the power to feed on others.
Successful vampires do not find it difficult to get to the top. They almost reach the top without being challenged. In some cases, the top is presented to the vampire in the workplace and business because no one else is willing to receive it.
In one office organisation I learned of, out of 100 employees, only one applied for a vacant manager post, and, I was told, she was undoubtedly a veritable vampire. For legal reasons, we will refer to her only as Caroline.
VAMPIRE RISING – CAROLINE
Caroline possessed an inordinate entitled belief for the job advertised. Vampires often display this dysfunctional and delusional form of self-entitlement.
Caroline was a little older than 25 and severely needed to gain the skills and experience the job needed. There were upwards of twenty people with more experience and skills.
But these people with more skills and experience couldn’t be bothered for reasons known only to them. Some openly said: ‘It’s not worth the hassle.’
On the day of the interview, Caroline, the vampire, swanned around with all the boastfulness and entitlement imaginable.
Who was the interviewing panel: a good CEO and three other senior managers.
The interview was merely a presentation of promotion.
After the promotion, there were now four vampires in senior positions.
All vampires demonstrated the same vampiric traits and lack of depth in character, boastfulness, sense of self-exaggeration, and grandiose imaginings.
How did all four vampires achieve a position of power?
The reason is almost always the case: weakness at the top and first impressions.
First impressions are a potent tool for creating an image. First impressions are predominantly physical: dress, looks, handshake, eye contact, tone of voice, language, walk, demeanour etc.
All these are sense impressions. They impact within split-seconds on our sensory perceptions.
These perceptions are extremely powerful in creating belief, quickly leading to reality and truth.
Most people are led to so-called ‘truth’ through impressions, perceptions, and beliefs arising from inclinations and weaknesses to first-sensory impressions.
BOASTFUL AND ARROGANT VAMPIRES
The boastful and arrogant vampire succeeds because of the human propensity to believe as ‘truth’ first impressions of sensory perception.
The vampire is a consummate trickster and will do all its powers to entice, persuade, and disseminate its way to the position it wants. The vampire will exploit ‘sensory perceptions’ to achieve its goal.
But the vampire will avoid situations and persons where they know that sensory perceptions are balanced with concentrated wisdom and penetrative questioning.
The vampire will quickly crumble in such an environment. Why? Because there is no depth or profundity to the vampire’s grandiosity, only shallowness.
The vampire can side-step detailed scrutiny and seal a victory where there should be none. Human ignorance presents a social mobility ladder to the vampire, or in a relationship, a pull into bed.
To get the job, the successful vampire must pull a dark cloak of confidence over their self-exaggeration, boastfulness, self-entitlement, and arrogance so that it becomes genuinely concealed from those without much depth of scrutiny in their wisdom.
The office’s CEO and senior management could not see through this dark cloak of confidence when Caroline stepped across the threshold on the interview day. Self-exaggeration, boastfulness, self-entitlement, and arrogance were hidden, and the CEO and senior management only saw a strong will and determination to express themselves.
They appointed Caroline but later regretted their appointment, wishing they ‘…should have probed deeper into Caroline’s strong will determination.’
VAMPIRE RISING – GRANDIOSITY AND LACK OF EMPATHY
The business cannot be named for legal reasons, but they were a formidable force when the four vampires aligned their self-exaggeration, grandiosity and lack of empathy.
Each vampire was secure in knowing they could attack their victims at leisure and without censorship.
Caroline didn’t waste much time beginning her vampire attack in the workplace.
As you read the narrative, you may wonder, ‘Why didn’t the employee complain?’
The complaints panel comprised two of the other four vampires. Should the employee not be satisfied with their decision, they could progress to another level: where another of the four vampires sat!
It did not matter which employee complained; the process was always the same: vampires covering for other vampires. The employee victims didn’t stand a chance.
It would be best to remember that vampires will almost always choose the weakest in society and an organisation; they will steer clear of attacking the strongest. Caroline stayed clear of attacking the strongest in her vampiric attack.
