08-02-2019, 11:53 AM
Before anyone shows any sympathy for plans to breed any 'super race', let me remind you that many of the profoundest achievers in their fields come from very ordinary backgrounds. Ludwig van Beethoven came from a troubled family of little distinction. (The Dutch and Flemish van is not an aristocratic signal as is von in German-speaking countries). Booker T. Washington was not bred for intellectual brilliance, to put it mildly. Nobody would have had a clue about Thomas Edison from his family. To be sure, there are families such as the Bach, Mendelssohn, Adams, and Curie families that have churned out an inordinate share of high achievers, but this may more reflect good habits than good genes.
Any plan for breeding a 'master race' poses the risk of the bad effects of inbreeding. A plan to breed a wonderful Aryan population in Paraguay from among German settlers resulted in genetic diseases. The solution was for the descendants of those settlers to marry out -- to First Peoples populations. The best plans of swine and men... OK, there is nothing noble about any racist concepts.
It is more important that we seek out the highly-talented and cultivate their abilities while perhaps being aware that these people have problems that one does not want to propagate. As someone else suggested, we can only imagine what geniuses we have wasted by consigning them to roles as peasants and slaves, never to approach their potential -- and such is supreme tragedy.
Any plan for breeding a 'master race' poses the risk of the bad effects of inbreeding. A plan to breed a wonderful Aryan population in Paraguay from among German settlers resulted in genetic diseases. The solution was for the descendants of those settlers to marry out -- to First Peoples populations. The best plans of swine and men... OK, there is nothing noble about any racist concepts.
It is more important that we seek out the highly-talented and cultivate their abilities while perhaps being aware that these people have problems that one does not want to propagate. As someone else suggested, we can only imagine what geniuses we have wasted by consigning them to roles as peasants and slaves, never to approach their potential -- and such is supreme tragedy.
The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated Communist but instead the people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists -- Hannah Arendt.