Darwin, Evolutionary Biology, & Race

Darwin’s ideas about race have (or had) also been twisted or willfully misinterpreted (or only partially quoted) by the Eugenics movement, which ultimately helped informed not only Hitler’s policy of the ‘pure Aryan Race’ and the resultant atrocities of the Holocaust, but also the U.S.’s policy on care and treatment of the mentally ill before and during that period.

Each side of the question of race find what each feels supports their cause in the writings of Darwin. Some paint him as racist, while others say he was not. It is important to note that the human ‘race’ is never mentioned in the ‘On the Origin of Species’ (that would come later in his ‘The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex’) and the language that Darwin often used to discuss race when he did discuss it, was couched in the lingo and beliefs of his time. However, a full study of his work does not seem to support either racism or eugenics, but, rather, the opposite.

Eugenics, a ‘fake science’ for controlling and ‘improving’ the human species through means of targeted selection (as opposed to ‘natural’), was intended to enhance desirable human qualities (based on racist ideas and views) by weeding out undesirable qualities and people from the gene pool. This policy led to the attempted extermination of an entire people in Hitler’s ‘Final Solution’, and, in the U.S. the institutionalizing and sterilization of other types of undesirables, most notably the mentally ill and physically ‘unbeautiful’ or those perceived as grotesque.

Though the beliefs and practices of racism and eugenics would seem to overlap, each was so virulent and widespread in the U.S. that they hardly ever seemed to have influenced each other to any significant degree. Racism was mostly about discrimination, based in part on ideas of racial superiority/inferiority, while eugenics focused almost exclusively on the disabled (mentally and physically) of ALL races.

The Eugenics Movement that would have such a profound and regretful influence on Hitler’s ideas of a ‘Master Race’ (and the policies that followed) actually had its origins in two unlikely sources: the ideas of Sir Francis Galton, a half-cousin of Charles Darwin and a noted scientist in his own right, and widespread practice and funding in the United States. Both white AND black intellectuals supported it at the time, each feeling that its own group was the genetically superior one. Funding came from some of the largest and most well known sources at the time, including the Carnegie and Rockefeller foundations, among others.

What Darwin actually thought and said about the differences in various human ‘races’ can best be summed up in this excerpt from Wikipedia:

“Introducing chapter seven, ("On the Races of Man"), Darwin wrote, "It is not my intention here to describe the several so-called races of men; but to inquire what is the value of the differences between them under a classificatory point of view, and how they have originated."^[15] In answering the question of whether the races should rank as varieties of the same species or count as different species, Darwin discussed arguments, which could support the idea that human races were distinct species.^[16][17] This included the geographical distribution of mammal groups which was correlated with the distribution of human races,^[18] and the finding of Henry Denny that different species of lice affected different races differently.^[19] Darwin then presented the stronger evidence that human races are all the same species, noting that when races mixed together, they intercrossed beyond the "usual test of specific distinctness"^[20] and that characteristics identifying races were highly variable.^[21] He put great weight on the point that races graduate into each other, writing "But the most weighty of all the arguments against treating the races of man as distinct species, is that they graduate into each other, independently in many cases, as far as we can judge, of their having intercrossed",^[22] and concluded that the stronger evidence was that they were not different species.^[23]”

To get a clear view of Darwin’s beliefs call for a complete and (completely unbiased) reading of both his seminal works, ‘On the Origin of the Species’, and ‘The Descent of Man’.

The Last Tribunal

Adolf Hitler death by suicide, April 30, 1945

In his quest to create a Third Reich (‘empire’ or ‘regime’), Hitler drew on many sources and resources: military, cultural, extraterrestrial (if some theories are to be believed) and, of course, mythological.

Why he would draw on such a diverse range of esoteric resources belies what he believed his sacred task to be, nothing less than the creation of a Third Reich, a third world-spanning empire. This third empire was to assume the historic mantle lost by the first two, the First Reich being the Holy Roman Empire, and the Second Reich, the Germanic Empire, which lasted roughly from the early 1870s until almost 1920.

(This Second Reich culminated in end of WWI and the beginning of the ‘Weimar Republic’ in German history, perhaps best known (to non-history buffs) as the rich setting for the film musical ‘Cabaret’.)

As portrayed in two of the Indiana Jones movies, (Raiders of the Lost Ark, and The Last Crusade) Hitler and his minions (including Heinrich Himmler and Josef Goebbels) were obsessed with the Occult. They were also obsessed with the hunting down and claiming as many religious and mythological artifacts as they could, from as many cultures as they saw fit to pillage, (along with other valuable works of art).

They hoped these supposedly powerful relics would contain some type of mystical energy to fuel what they believed to be Germany’s right to empire, and thus prove it was preordained all along by some higher authority.

Those relics included the Spear of Destiny, also known as the ‘Holy Lance’ (which was supposed to have been used to pierce Christ’s side during the crucifixion), the Holy Grail, thought to have been used at the Last Supper, and the Ark of the Covenant (this final relic is debatable as to whether the Nazis actually searched for it, or not.). The Nazis also consulted the prophecies of Nostradamus, looking for justification for their conquests. (Hitler was well aware of the quatrains in those ancient predictions that seemed to refer to him.)

He was also aware of the philosophies of occultists like Madame Petrovna Blavatsky, and her (once)

Madame Helena Petrovna Blavatsky

well-known writings Isis Unveiled and The Secret Doctrine, and the growing pseudoscience of eugenics, which presumably provided scientific proof of a superior, perfect human being of pure blood. (Hitler was an admirer of ‘Madame’ Helena Petrovna Blavatsky and her work. Some of her writings influenced Hitler’s views on race and destiny.)

Surprisingly (to many), this false ‘science’ (eugenics) actually started in the very heart of the U. S., and later migrated to Germany. Its practices included the medical abuses of the infirm and mentally handicapped, unwanted sterilizations, medical torture in the name of science, and a growing idea that some human beings were more ‘human’ than others.

In addition, the entire eugenics movement may have been sparked or inadvertently influenced by the work of Charles Darwin. In fact, the first person to coin the phrase, ‘eugenics’ and the philosophy behind it, was a distant cousin of Darwin’s named Francis Galton, a scientist in his own right.

The Nazis also searched for artifacts of other cultures, religions and belief systems, spending an inordinate amount of time, money and military resources in their vain quests. The eventual loss of these valuable resources most likely contributed to their losing the war.

Also of great significance to Hitler’s need for justification for his unborn Reich was finding definite proof of the existence of the mythical Aryan race and culture.

Of course, such a race, as conjured up by the Nazis for their own benefit, never actually existed. Even more oddly, once they ‘made up’ the Aryans, they spent an inordinate amount of time and money trying vainly to find their fictional race of ancestors.

‘Aryan’ is at most a blanket term that could be used to describe several races and peoples, real or imagined, from the mountain ranges of India to various parts of the Asian and Eastern European continent. The Nazi idea of the ‘ideal’ Aryan (oddly for culture obsessed with racial purity), was an almost bastardized mixture of ALL of these non-European peoples, very few (if any) of them blue-eyed or with blond hair, but, instead, more Hindu and (east) Indian.

Hitler also looked to music for inspiration for his empire. For this task, there was no better choice than Richard Wagner.

Richard Wagner

Wagner and Hitler were a good fit culturally, though the composer had been dead for many years before Hitler’s rise to power. Richard Wagner (1813 – 1883) was virulently racist and anti-Semitic. He especially despised his contemporary Jewish composers such as Mendelssohn (1809 - 1847), and was loath to conduct their music. (Paradoxically, he also admired Heinrich Heine, and had Jewish patrons and admirers. In this, he was also like Hitler, whom, it was rumored, hid Jewish ancestry in his family tree.)

On the other hand, his own music was thrilling, bombastic, heroic, and soul stirring, almost offensively steeped in a nationalistic machismo, a self-serving almost bloated mythology, which not only attracted Hitler, but inspired him as well, from a very young age. (Hitler was so taken with the visions of heroic jingoism in Wagner’s music he had it played in concentration camps for the ‘benefit’ of the Jewish prisoners, as if hearing it would purge them of their ‘unfortunate’ Semitic tendencies.)

Even today, Wagner’s music has an oddly larger-than-life, heroic power that stirs even the most sedate and civilized audience with images of adventure, sacrifice, and glorious battle. Wagner’s own idea of his cult of personality is ingrained the music, which has also woven its way into the fabric of modern opera itself. The figure of the Valkyrie Brünnhilde, with her horns, furs and breastplates, spear and shield, has become a caricature and de facto symbol of modern opera, at least to the general public.

In fact, Wagner’s music is so powerful that Hollywood has used many of his musical conventions and motifs in soundtracks for years. (From a more personal perspective, it is also extremely electrifying to actually perform this music.)

It’s more than coincidence that Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings cycle, based on the Tolkien trilogy, uses ‘Wagnerian’ musical phrases to portray the inherent evil of the ‘one ring’, its power, and any who wields it.

This draws on a long-standing argument among fans of Wagner and Tolkien whether their two Ring cycles are related, or, at least, drawn from the same Germanic folkloric sources. Even Tolkien himself has denied this; though his cycle is almost exclusively about races of beings, some of which are ostensibly ‘superior’ to others, and the contention over a ring of power that would confer even more status on the wielder (along with their eminent downfall.)

Richard Wagner: loved, hated, reviled, and respected, composed the soundtrack for a failed empire that would rise and fall more than sixty years after his death, ending as ‘un-heroically’ and unceremoniously as it had begun, with capsules of steel and cyanide in a cramped, garishly over-furnished, poorly illuminated bunker.