Schoolboys in Iceland - quintessentially Nordic
By: Ali Ismail
0778-842 5262 (United Kingdom)
aliismail_uk@yahoo.co.uk
WHAT DID THE OLD TIME RACISTS THINK OF THE NON-EUROPEANS?
Previous theories may come back after the Soviet Union’s fall
During my time at boarding school, there were constant discussions on the subject of race which would today not be fully acceptable. That time, during the sixties and early seventies, was closer to the second world war and was not an era of political correctness.
One such conversation was about whether or not Adolph Hitler was a “great man”. One participant therein was of the view that he was, apparently in agreement with President Kennedy that Hitler “possessed the stuff of which greatness is made” but he was a voice in the wilderness in this regard and all the others disagreed.
We are passing through a time when in a country such as the United Kingdom which is classified as a liberal democracy, it is fashionable and almost compulsory to agree with the view that all the races of mankind are in major matters just about equal. That is not so in the third world where ethnocentric thinking and behaviour is perfectly acceptable.
In China, for example, one has to be racially Han to be socially suitable generally throughout that vast country. The racial and religious minorities such as the Hui have a truly hard time.
My argument is that this liberalism in the West may well be a passing phase and that now that the Soviet Union has been dead for a decade and a half, the old days and the old ways may revisit us with or without a vengeance. It has been firmly established that the dismantling of the enormous colonial empires after WWII owed more to the existence of the Soviet Union than to any other single causation.
It is quite possible that future generations of non-Europeans may have the kind of relationships with Europeans which characterised British India when the locals were ordered about and taxed without representation – the reason behind the American Revolution.
If this turns out to be the correct “take” on this most important of subjects, it may well be worthwhile to look again at out of date and out of print works on the subject of race. Any bookstore that sells this kind of material openly is in for a rough time. The natural home for all of this is the Internet and I went into cyberspace to find out.
Any major point of view needs, in fact requires, a set of principles and a theoretical foundation to underpin it. The former European way of thinking about and treating, for example, South Asians, is no exception. Indeed, there was a large literature devoted to exactly this subject the purpose of which was to legitimise and rationalise the prevailing methodology of ruling Africans, Asians and South Americans.
One such source of authority was The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant (1865-1937). This dwelt heavily on the presence of African Americans in North America but surveyed the whole world. Grant was no doubt influenced in no small way by White America: The American Racial Problem as seen in a Worldwide Perspective (1937) by Earnest Sevier Cox. This author attributed the fall of civilisations to contact with inferior races and he supported strict geographical separation.
Coming forward in time we come to Nazi Germany which, though defeated in war, continues to inspire many people, sometimes secretly, and the writings and teachings which permeated those 12 years of rule have echoes which reach us today.
One of the best-known German thinkers and writers of that period on this subject was Karl Weilander who was assisted by the National Socialist Teachers Bund in Nuremberg.
This writer was of the view that the most important objective when reviewing the races of Mankind was to isolate and identify the active ingredient(s) which brought about civilisation. He divided up the non-Europeans in the usual ways and then, following earlier guidelines, proceeded to do the same thing with the Europeans themselves.
His theory – and those of his predecessors – was that “white” people belonged to three distinct typologies: These were the Mediterranean, the Alpine and the Nordic. The Mediterraneans were the hewers of wood and drawers of water of Europe and lived originally in lands that were characterised by long hot summers and short mild winters. The Alpines lived in Central Europe and were round headed and were the administrators and managers of Europe. The glory of Europe, he thought, was the Nordic sub-race.
Weilander’s view was that long long ago in the dim past a singular race of Mankind evolved and developed in the lands around the Baltic Sea. They were separated by geographical distances from other peoples and acquired characteristics which were to make them the wonder of the region of the Earth to which they belonged. They were tall, fair, conscientious, respectful of the property of others, just, intellectually vigorous and enquiring, brave and conscientious. The men were warlike and their women were generous.
The most important aspect of this strange and dangerous theory is that Weilander thought that a greater or lesser admixture of this Nordic strain caused all civilisations throughout the world.
Ancient Egypt, he and his latter day supporters say, was the product of a “white” race which colonised the Nile valley and built an enormous civilisation based on the annual flooding of the Nile. The civilisation collapsed internally when, they claim, “inferior” stock was permitted to enter Egypt and intermarry with the people such that the last Pharaohs were of partially black African descent. The original inhabitants had, they claim, the necessary amount of Nordic genes to provide the spark to start the civilisation.
What of ancient China? The argument is that Chinese civilisation was founded by “white” people who were dominant in the East and then died out. The early Chinese emperors, they say, were of this stock. Confucius was said to be a man with a full beard but most Chinese are relatively hairless. This points to a man of Western extraction teaching and civilising the Chinese, they claim.
Hans E.K. Guenther was a German Nazi who researched with the assistance of the Deutche Kopfe nordischer Rasse. His views are now highly unacceptable but were standard fare in Hitler’s regime.
Guenther stated that a race is a group of human beings who, breeding true, distinguishes itself from its neighbours by hereditary, physical and mental traits. The psychic traits possessed by the various races differ qualitatively, he said. The Nordic race was by virtue of the preceding description of them, superior to all the others. Finally, he came out with the chestnut that the extensions and contractions of European cultures follow the waxings and wanings of the proportions of the genes of this singular sub-race.
Having succeeded to such insight we can begin to interpret personalities in its light. Since all creativity stems from the Nordic race all creative personalities must be Nordics or bastards whose creativity derives from some (sometimes more than obscure) Nordic source. When we find those like Caesar and Goethe who are brunet we can ascribe their superiority to their "Nordic" stature. Where we find men of note, as in the case of Napoleon and Nelson, who measure less than 160cm., we can assign their superiority to the fact that they were (at least in their youth) fair. When we find someone like Martin Luther who was brachycephalic (round headed), brown eyed, almost raven haired and of only medium stature we may be forced to admit an Alpine "infusion," or we might designate him a Cro-Magnon survival, or we might suggest that he is a Dalo-Nordic, a Nordic "sub-type" because he did most assuredly have a "Nordic soul."
Previous theories may come back after the Soviet Union’s fall
During my time at boarding school, there were constant discussions on the subject of race which would today not be fully acceptable. That time, during the sixties and early seventies, was closer to the second world war and was not an era of political correctness.
One such conversation was about whether or not Adolph Hitler was a “great man”. One participant therein was of the view that he was, apparently in agreement with President Kennedy that Hitler “possessed the stuff of which greatness is made” but he was a voice in the wilderness in this regard and all the others disagreed.
We are passing through a time when in a country such as the United Kingdom which is classified as a liberal democracy, it is fashionable and almost compulsory to agree with the view that all the races of mankind are in major matters just about equal. That is not so in the third world where ethnocentric thinking and behaviour is perfectly acceptable.
In China, for example, one has to be racially Han to be socially suitable generally throughout that vast country. The racial and religious minorities such as the Hui have a truly hard time.
My argument is that this liberalism in the West may well be a passing phase and that now that the Soviet Union has been dead for a decade and a half, the old days and the old ways may revisit us with or without a vengeance. It has been firmly established that the dismantling of the enormous colonial empires after WWII owed more to the existence of the Soviet Union than to any other single causation.
It is quite possible that future generations of non-Europeans may have the kind of relationships with Europeans which characterised British India when the locals were ordered about and taxed without representation – the reason behind the American Revolution.
If this turns out to be the correct “take” on this most important of subjects, it may well be worthwhile to look again at out of date and out of print works on the subject of race. Any bookstore that sells this kind of material openly is in for a rough time. The natural home for all of this is the Internet and I went into cyberspace to find out.
Any major point of view needs, in fact requires, a set of principles and a theoretical foundation to underpin it. The former European way of thinking about and treating, for example, South Asians, is no exception. Indeed, there was a large literature devoted to exactly this subject the purpose of which was to legitimise and rationalise the prevailing methodology of ruling Africans, Asians and South Americans.
One such source of authority was The Passing of the Great Race by Madison Grant (1865-1937). This dwelt heavily on the presence of African Americans in North America but surveyed the whole world. Grant was no doubt influenced in no small way by White America: The American Racial Problem as seen in a Worldwide Perspective (1937) by Earnest Sevier Cox. This author attributed the fall of civilisations to contact with inferior races and he supported strict geographical separation.
Coming forward in time we come to Nazi Germany which, though defeated in war, continues to inspire many people, sometimes secretly, and the writings and teachings which permeated those 12 years of rule have echoes which reach us today.
One of the best-known German thinkers and writers of that period on this subject was Karl Weilander who was assisted by the National Socialist Teachers Bund in Nuremberg.
This writer was of the view that the most important objective when reviewing the races of Mankind was to isolate and identify the active ingredient(s) which brought about civilisation. He divided up the non-Europeans in the usual ways and then, following earlier guidelines, proceeded to do the same thing with the Europeans themselves.
His theory – and those of his predecessors – was that “white” people belonged to three distinct typologies: These were the Mediterranean, the Alpine and the Nordic. The Mediterraneans were the hewers of wood and drawers of water of Europe and lived originally in lands that were characterised by long hot summers and short mild winters. The Alpines lived in Central Europe and were round headed and were the administrators and managers of Europe. The glory of Europe, he thought, was the Nordic sub-race.
Weilander’s view was that long long ago in the dim past a singular race of Mankind evolved and developed in the lands around the Baltic Sea. They were separated by geographical distances from other peoples and acquired characteristics which were to make them the wonder of the region of the Earth to which they belonged. They were tall, fair, conscientious, respectful of the property of others, just, intellectually vigorous and enquiring, brave and conscientious. The men were warlike and their women were generous.
The most important aspect of this strange and dangerous theory is that Weilander thought that a greater or lesser admixture of this Nordic strain caused all civilisations throughout the world.
Ancient Egypt, he and his latter day supporters say, was the product of a “white” race which colonised the Nile valley and built an enormous civilisation based on the annual flooding of the Nile. The civilisation collapsed internally when, they claim, “inferior” stock was permitted to enter Egypt and intermarry with the people such that the last Pharaohs were of partially black African descent. The original inhabitants had, they claim, the necessary amount of Nordic genes to provide the spark to start the civilisation.
What of ancient China? The argument is that Chinese civilisation was founded by “white” people who were dominant in the East and then died out. The early Chinese emperors, they say, were of this stock. Confucius was said to be a man with a full beard but most Chinese are relatively hairless. This points to a man of Western extraction teaching and civilising the Chinese, they claim.
Hans E.K. Guenther was a German Nazi who researched with the assistance of the Deutche Kopfe nordischer Rasse. His views are now highly unacceptable but were standard fare in Hitler’s regime.
Guenther stated that a race is a group of human beings who, breeding true, distinguishes itself from its neighbours by hereditary, physical and mental traits. The psychic traits possessed by the various races differ qualitatively, he said. The Nordic race was by virtue of the preceding description of them, superior to all the others. Finally, he came out with the chestnut that the extensions and contractions of European cultures follow the waxings and wanings of the proportions of the genes of this singular sub-race.
Having succeeded to such insight we can begin to interpret personalities in its light. Since all creativity stems from the Nordic race all creative personalities must be Nordics or bastards whose creativity derives from some (sometimes more than obscure) Nordic source. When we find those like Caesar and Goethe who are brunet we can ascribe their superiority to their "Nordic" stature. Where we find men of note, as in the case of Napoleon and Nelson, who measure less than 160cm., we can assign their superiority to the fact that they were (at least in their youth) fair. When we find someone like Martin Luther who was brachycephalic (round headed), brown eyed, almost raven haired and of only medium stature we may be forced to admit an Alpine "infusion," or we might designate him a Cro-Magnon survival, or we might suggest that he is a Dalo-Nordic, a Nordic "sub-type" because he did most assuredly have a "Nordic soul."
Guenther tells us that because among the Chinese one can find dolichocephalism (long heads), an "almost white skin, sometimes combined with handsome European features" this is presumptive evidence of a Nordic strain, as though "almost white skin" and "handsomeness" are placed only in Nordic cradles.
He tells us, further, in a most instructive instance of petitio principii, that because the Druses of Lebanon enjoy a relatively high standard of education, are brave, hard working, and clean, they must be possessed of a Nordic element. The Samnite men loved to fight and their women were chaste - sufficient evidence for Guenther.
The first clear statement on subsequent official reorientation had come from Hitler himself only seven months after he came to power, at the 1933 Nuremberg Parteitag. Hitler said: "We do not conclude from a man's physical type his ability, but rather from his achievements his race." Thus achievements, not physical type, were to be the measure of worth.
This principle advanced by Hitler entered the basic texts on anthropology and heredity, and by 1935 the last phase in the development of National Socialist race theory was well under way. Thieme repeats Hitler's principle and adds: “the men who bear the qualities of heroism, strength of will, a readiness to sacrifice and faith have played a decisive role in deciding Germany's destiny, and they shall continue to do so even if they are not all tall, blond or blue-eyed."
My contention is that these ideas, modified by intervening experience, may come back to haunt us in the post-Soviet Union days that lie ahead when it is no longer necessary to be diplomatic to the weak.
THE END
This article was first published on 28th March 2006 in the Bangla Mirror newspaper, the first English language weekly for the United Kingdom's Bangladeshis - read all over the world from the Arctic to the Antarctic
posted by Ali at 1:51 PM
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