Yockeyian Genetics

Constructing a more cohesive pan-European genetic identity.  Emphasis added.

We all know Yockey’s somewhat questionable views on the issue of biological race, which I have written about multiple times (one example here).  Instead of focusing on that, here I look at another issue – the possible genetic (biological racial) consequences of a Yockeyian Imperium, a subject that I term “Yockeyian Genetics.”

In some ways, this is related to my essay on the convergence of the Yockeyian and Salterian perspectives, but here I consider it from the more specific perspective of how a Yockeyian Imperium could affect the genetics of the European peoples constituting such a geopolitical entity.

Let us consider this post, which is based on this paper, from which the following is extracted:

Population stratification caused by nonrandom mating between groups of the same species is often due to geographical distances leading to physical separation followed by genetic drift of allele frequencies in each group. In humans, population structures are also often driven by geographical barriers or distances; however, humans might also be structured by abstract factors such as culture, a consequence of their reasoning and self-awareness. Religion in particular, is one of the unusual conceptual factors that can drive human population structures. This study explores the Levant, a region flanked by the Middle East and Europe, where individual and population relationships are still strongly influenced by religion. We show that religious affiliation had a strong impact on the genomes of the Levantines. In particular, conversion of the region's populations to Islam appears to have introduced major rearrangements in populations' relations through admixture with culturally similar but geographically remote populations, leading to genetic similarities between remarkably distant populations like Jordanians, Moroccans, and Yemenis. Conversely, other populations, like Christians and Druze, became genetically isolated in the new cultural environment. We reconstructed the genetic structure of the Levantines and found that a pre-Islamic expansion Levant was more genetically similar to Europeans than to Middle Easterners.

The last part – “a pre-Islamic expansion Levant was more genetically similar to Europeans than to Middle Easterners” – has some relevance with respect to putative “Levantine immigrants and slaves” in Ancient Rome, who may have been much more “genetically similar to Europeans” than are Middle Easterners today. Note also that post-Islamic expansion Muslin influx into Southern Europe may have been mostly Berber types (and that, with a net effect of only a few percentage points of ancestry, at the greatest). But those are details.  

The main point is that cultural similarity can influence genetics to bring culturally similar people to become more genetically similar, and more genetically distant and distinct from culturally alien peoples, even if the cultural aliens are geographically close and not much genetically different to begin with. The same principle can extend to the realm of politics and High Culture-Politics as that of a Yockeyian Imperium. Thus, we can understand how cultural-civilizational-political boundaries can influence genetic boundaries between peoples.

See this, which is based on this.

…during the last 1,000 generations there are more coalescences between Beijing Chinese and Japanese rather than Beijing Chinese and southern Chinese; in more recent times, there are more coalescences between Chinese groups. This makes some sense, if we suppose that -as seems likely- Mongoloids spread north-to-south across China during prehistory; the Japanese are thus linked -in older times- with northern Chinese, both of which are mostly descended from the northern Mongoloids; in more recent times, especially after the emergence of a uniquely Chinese polity and culture, the Chinese tend to marry other Chinese, hence they share more recent common ancestors within the country itself.

The take home point of this:

The same can apply to Europe and any (relatively small) potential kinship overlap that may currently exist between Europeans and non-Europeans.  Once a “Western Imperium” is established, and gene flow from outside is stopped, over time, genetic distance between those groups within the Imperium and those outside will increase.  Thus, even if there is no increase in gene flow within the Imperium, the fact that a genetic division will be established with the “outer groups” will ensure that Europeans will, over time, form an ever more cohesive genetic grouping, more clearly separated from non-Europeans.  Thus, proximate influences ultimate, and genetic boundaries can become increasingly well matched with political-cultural-civilizational boundaries once gene flow between civilizational groups is stopped.  And there is more than enough genetic diversity within each civilizational bloc to satisfy biological requirements in the absence of any inter-continental and inter-civilizational gene flow.

Genetic drift, selection, and other such processes would take place, with the within vs. without distinction further pushing Europeans and non-Europeans farther apart. There would also be, to an extent, increasing cultural distinctiveness to mirror that of the genes/biology. The last part about "biological requirements" refers to an adequate amount of genetic diversity to enhance fitness, avoid inbreeding depression, and to provide the genetic variation to deal with changes in the environment (broadly defined).

So, we see that a political-cultural entity, the Yockeyian Imperium, would affect the genetics of its constituent peoples in such a manner as to support the underlying foundation of the Imperium entity itself, the organic solidarity of the European peoples.

Consider this PCA figure.  By tightly restricting any possible gene flow strictly to the European Imperium, one would expect, over time, the European and non-European areas to be more distinct and segregated than they are presently, with the European PCA likely becoming more concentrated within a space of the two major axes (PC1 and PC2).  Certainly, any tendency of greater intra-European dispersion and European/non-European convergence – the latter of which is no doubt being facilitated by alien immigration into Europe – would be repressed, and the aforementioned opposing trends promoted.  Any possibility that a given European and non-European ethny would be genetically closer than two European ethnies would also be eliminated over time by the processes inherent in restricting gene flow strictly within the European family of nations. Thus any such kinship overlap, if such exist, between, say, Europeans and non-European Caucasians, would be eliminated, as discussed above.

Cypriots are found in between Southern Italians and Near Easterners, thus, between Southern Europeans and non-European Caucasians. If Greek Cypriots are included in the Imperium while Turkish Cypriots are excluded, then the former group will, over time, converge with Southern Europeans in PCA while the latter will drift in the direction of Turks – as a result of restricting any (low level, see below) gene flow to the proper categories.

Now, one could speculate that the EU, and freedom of movement within it, would promote an increasing convergence and concentration of European PCA, but then the introduction of alien elements, not always evenly distributed among EU members) would counter-act that to an extent (e.g., a large number of Turks in Germany would, in the event of admixture, move Germans away from other Europeans infested with alien types other than Turks - with the alien invaders being less interested in moving away from their favorite host nations than are natives willing to move elsewhere).  So, the current EU, which combines both freedom of movement within and porous borders without, is not optimal for the proposed “Yockeyian Genetics.”

Now, one can argue that from the strict perspective of so-called Yockeyian genetics, the optimal situation would be an internal European-only panmixia, with complete internal freedom of movement and significant inter-marriage, coupled to a complete lack of movement and admixture with non-Europeans.  While true, that would have the negative effect of erasing established European ethnic identities, and creating a generalized European type, which is not the objective of pan-Europeanism (regardless of what its opponents claim). Thus, the objective of Yockeyian genetics is not the optimal, and most rapid, creation of a generalized pan-European genetic type (with a highly concentrated PCA). Indeed, the type of Imperium I have in mind would have less internal movement than the current EU, in order to safeguard the uniqueness of specific European types. Instead, I propose to completely shut off outside influences, while allowing for, over time, low level intra-European gene flow to result in an increased European/non-European separation, and a degree of concentration of the European PCA, while still preserving the overall PCA (genes correlated with geography) structure and the uniqueness of the European types. A slow and modest “tightening” of the PCA over time with respect to Europeans, coupled to increased distance to non-Europeans is the objective, with the concomitant, desired elimination of any possible European/non-European kinship overlap. Thus, in every case, genetic distances between any chosen European ethnies would always be less than genetic distances between any European and non-European ethnies (in most cases, this is true today, but there may be some breakdown of that between the farthest ends of the genetic spectrum).

Thus, this would NOT be any panmixia, but the normal low level gene flow that has always occurred in history between distinct peoples, but in this case, restricted in the manner described above. Of course, if some European ethny wants to follow its own evolutionary path, and be completely genetically isolated from all other groups, in order to promote divergence, that’s fine; freedom of association would be respected (but the opposite, bringing in racial and cultural aliens from outside the European sphere, would not be tolerated).  But, given the behavior of people within the EU today, I suspect the opposite would be more of an issue – people clamoring for free movement between Imperium nations, a movement that would need to be restricted (to some significant degree) in order to preserve ethnic distinctiveness. These are details that would need to be worked out.

The consequences with respect to Salterian EGI would be supportive of the Imperium idea.  Eliminating potential kinship overlap with groups outside the Imperium, and concentrating (to a natural extent over time, again, not a panmixia that would harm the more local specific EGI of individual ethnies) the European genepool, the EGI cost/benefit ratio would ever increasingly move into the direction of maximizing benefits and minimizing costs of the Imperium idea.  Genetic distance to groups outside the Imperium would increase, making it more and more beneficial to exclude such groups and minimizing costs that would have obtained if kinship overlap across the Imperium boundaries existed.  Genetic distances within the Imperium would in all cases be less than any case of cross-boundary genetic distance, again maximizing benefits and minimizing costs.  Not only would net EGI benefit from the Imperium arrangement (in that any significant EGI costs would be more than compensated by counterbalancing benefits), but by eliminating much of the costs, gross EGI would be maximized as well.  This would particularly be the case if the uniqueness of individual ethnies is maintained, so the best of both worlds occur – individual ethnic group EGI is preserved, while pan-European EGI is maximized as well.

To summarize, in outline form:

• 1. A pan-European state (Imperium) would be set up that would have the effect of an enhancement of net EGI, by advancing the interests of the group of peoples and thus the interest of each constituting group.
• 2. In order to safeguard the uniqueness of the constituent groups, movement and mixture between these groups would be restricted, preventing any panmxia and loss of biological and cultural ethnic distinctiveness. Of course, there would be some (limited) movement and gene flow, consistent with what has occurred throughout European history.
• 3. At the same time, movement and mixture from without the Imperium, from biologically and culturally alien non-European peoples, would be strictly forbidden and absolutely restricted.
• 4. Thus, what would obtain over historical, evolutionary time is a complete absence of gene flow from the outside, coupled with continuous, low level, internal gene flow. Genetic drift, selection, and other such processes would take place, with the within vs. without distinction further pushing Europeans and non-Europeans farther apart.
• 5. These processes would have the effect, over time, of increasing the genetic distance of groups within vs. without the Imperium (European vs. non-European), while genetic distances within the Imperium would be maintained and/or slowly decreased (to an extent) over time.
• 6. Kinship overlap within/without would be eliminated due to these processes (particularly the strict isolation from outside gene flow).  Thus, in every possible case, any European ethnies chosen for comparison would be genetically closer (measured with genetic kinship/gene sharing, Fst, or whatever) than would be any European ethny compared to a non-European one. In PCA, European groups would be more separated from non-Europeans, and the European groups may be expected to slowly concentrate around a narrower core grouping along the major axes of genetic variation – Europeans less spread out among themselves, but more isolated from others.
• 7. These processes would take place naturally over long time frames, with ethnic distinctiveness being maintained, preserving local EGI while enhancing group EGI, leading to not only an increase in net EGI but gross EGI as well, a more optimal profile of genetic interests with costs minimized.

Would this process take centuries and millennia? Yes. An enduring structure is required, with an elite caste whose mission is to monitor and guide the process of directing European genetics. One would expect sampling of genetic metrics over time to evaluate the process, make sure all is going as planned, and to make adjustments as necessary. Some formula needs to be designed to make sure the process is politically and evolutionarily stable over time, that it is not hijacked or discarded, and does not become subject to elite free riding.  Considerations of “freedom” need to be put into context – the ultimate freedom is the freedom to exist and to pursue genetic interests. Further, as an elite project, this would not interfere with the day-to-day life of most people, with the exception of restrictions on movement between nations (and more so, in/out of the Imperium). But how many people actually relocate to other nations?  And if one’s nation is an orderly nationalist state, as would be under this scheme, why would they want to?

Zoological Race

"Zoological race" and a balanced perspective.

This is another installment in my evaluation of what I believe is the proper place for Yockeyian race concepts in scientifically enlightened racial activism. These installments will be relatively short; rather than put the reader to sleep with overly complex and lengthy essays, it is better to focus on one or two major points at a time.

In analogy to the “only Nixon could go to China” meme, perhaps someone like myself, with a long history of promoting, and writing about, genetics-based race concepts and the importance of genetic interests, is best suited to critique the hyper-fetishization of what Yockey would call “zoological race” among many in the “movement.”

“Zoological race” here means the concept of race as a (purely) materialist and biological concept, which in Yockey’s day dealt with traditional physical anthropology, cephalic indices, overall physical appearance and so forth, and which today would of course include various genetic components of ancestry.  Thus, Yockey derided this racial concept as being akin to classifying animal species in zoological terms, and the proponents of the “spiritual race” view object to viewing human races as rigid categories as one would view different animals in a zoo, how a taxonomist would view animal morphology, or how a college course in Zoology would bin animal species in various Orders and Genera.

Now, I stand by my previous assertions that “spiritual race” concepts are nonsense, and that race, at its fundamental basis, is a materialist and “zoological” concept.  However, that said, a more sober and measured consideration of Yockeyian criticism is called for. While the foundation of race is biological materialism, there is more to it than just that.  Further, even when considering facts about “zoological race,” there is a danger of going too far, obsessing over racial classification, of missing the forest for the trees.

Let us consider what I wrote in the past, comparing the extremes of Yockeyism vs. the extremes of Salterism:

Yockey’s major weakness is that he not only ignores the importance of biological race, but actually attacks the materialist basis of race itself. Stripped of a firm foundation of biology, Yockeyian culturalism could, in theory, degenerate into a nationalist version of “constitutional patriotism/citizenism,” in which commitment to a “High Culture” trumps biological preservationism, and genetic extinction is acceptable as long as “the High Culture” remains. This in clearly unacceptable.

Hence, the EGI Firewall idea. There has to be, at the very least, a minimal “floor” of basic consideration of genetic interests. Thus, no matter what decisions are made, no matter what political constructs are actualized, no matter what group definitions are accepted, there will be a line drawn against significantly maladaptive outcomes.  Only those Yockeyian memes consistent with preservation of fundamental EGI are acceptable.

If there is a choice between several political options, each with different costs and benefits to genetic interests, it is obvious that we need to know what those genetic interests are, so that the different possible outcomes can be calculated and evaluated. There may well be circumstances in which an option that incurs a greater cost is chosen over one that incurs a lesser cost, and for reasons that may well be justified, but how can we know what the costs are until we actually calculate the genetic interests involved?

Further, perhaps more realistically, there may be scenarios in which choices that incur a greater gross cost in genetic interests are chosen because these may have a net benefit of genetic interests, particularly in the long term.  Again, the only way for us to evaluate this is to actually know the genetic interests involved.  Otherwise, we are “flying blind” and making decisions without a full understanding of the actual costs of one choice vs. another.

On the other hand, Salterism has two weaknesses. First, a call to “preserve our distinctive genetic information” is unlikely to motivate most Western individuals to defend their genetic interests against the titanic forces arrayed against them. It almost certainly will not motivate the masses, who, as Michael O’Meara rightfully points out, are always induced to act by “myths” that encompass a cohesive worldview. Even rational activists can often become more motivated by these “myths” (which may of course constitute objective facts to a considerable degree) than to a pure empiricism. Thus, the “myth” of Yockeyan “High Culture” may be needed to motivate the defense of rational Salterian EGI.

That is one reason why Revilo Oliver, despite some reservations about Yockey’s race ideas, endorsed Imperium as “the book” of the National Youth Alliance.  The core ideals of that book are independent of “spiritual race” or even of “Spenglerian pessimism” (or the stark dichotomy between the Classical and Western High Cultures) that Yockey promoted and that Oliver disagreed with to one degree or another.  The core ideals of Imperium are more uplifting than navel-gazing obsessions over cephalic indices or admixture percentages. There is a cultural, civilizational component to racial and ethnic identity; such a component may be secondary to the underlying biological component, but it is important, crucial, and necessary all the same .In addition, the biological and cultural components are inter-related and cannot truly be separated – genes determine culture and cultures select for genes, thus affecting the consequent phenotypes, which in turn influence culture to continue the feedback loop.  Ignoring High Culture just because Yockey went too far with it is (almost) as bad as completely ignoring racial materialism.

Second, genetic interests are based upon differences and distinctions, and all individuals (except identical twins, if we ignore certain subtleties) differ in their genetic information. Therefore, the potential exists for an unrestrained focus on genetic interests to itself degenerate into a maladaptive genetic atomization—with the natural organic solidarity of particular ethnies, and of the West as a whole, disintegrating under an ever more fine series of biological divisions.

This is an important point, and one that many in the “movement” – with their ethnonationalism, subracial and ethnic fetishism and other Nutzi traits – do not accept.  There’s a difference between gross genetic interests and net genetic interests.  Attempts to maximize genetic interests in the gross sense, to maximize every possible quanta of genetic interests regardless of the consequences, is likely to backfire and cause problems that in the long term reduce group competitiveness and adaptive fitness, reducing the final outcome of net genetic interests.  Tempering Salterism with a bit of Yockeyian skepticism about “zoological race” may assist in preventing us from lurching too hard in the other direction of excessive racial obsession.

Note that even something as reasonable as a consideration of EGI can go too far when untempered by other considerations.  Now consider that the “movement’s” racial obsessions are typically far less rational and scientific than Salterian EGI. Given the undercurrent of irrationality of much of the “movement’s disjunctive “thinking” about race, it is very easy for such irrational “thought” to go too far – as it so often does.

So if even Salterism needs to be balanced by Yockeyism, the unhinged dark corners of “movement” racial ranting needs to be replaced by a Yockeyism balanced by Salterism.  Thus, Salterian Yockeyism – the Salter-Yockey synthesis - replaces Nutzi race fetishism and replaces the sort of Evolian “spiritual race” nonsense championed by Yockey.

Thus, we do away with a purely zoological consideration of racial conception in favor of a more nuanced approach that of course has a materialist foundation but adds to that.

We free our people from the hyper-materialist zoo and take a broader view of who we are, a more rational sense of Identity.

How the Proximate Influences the Ultimate

Some good sense.

One point that requires repeated stressing is that ultimate and proximate interests can never be truly separated from each other, since each influences the other.  Here is where certain blogs go wrong, in their instrumental use of "EGI" - using "ethnic genetic interests" as some sort of talisman, without thinking of its implications.  

MacDonald writes at The Occidental Observer (emphasis added):

As Frank Salter reminds us, genetic distances between human groups are the basis of natural selection and that one’s racial/ethnic group  is a huge storehouse of genetic interests compared to other groups. That is the fundamental biological reality underlying all this. But how we behave on the basis of this information is not at all determined by the genetic data. We Europeans must define ourselves in a way that makes strategic sense, using the culture-producing mental faculties of explicit processing. We have to make explicit assertions of racial identity and explicit assertions of our racial interests. No other strategy will succeed in staving off the dispossession of European America.

That is correct.  And more:

Via explicit processing, we can decide how to carve up the racial landscape to best suit our political and genetic interests... Races and ethnic groups are fuzzy sets in which the boundaries are fluid and subject to social construction. For a European-American, it makes much more sense to identify with others who can trace their ancestry back to Europe before 1492... On the other hand, it would be a poor strategy for me to identify only with Scottish Americans because such a relatively small group has much less political potential in multicultural America than the category of European Americans.

Thus, while genetic interests are ultimate interests, how we best pursue those ultimate interests is realistically determined by proximate interests influencing the determination of Identity.  This is why there is a distinction between net and gross genetic interests.  Using Maconald's example above, one can argue that his gross genetic interests would be served with a narrow identification with Scottish Americans, and a ideology focused on Scottish Americans outcompeting all other groups, including other Whites.  Realistically, however, this is a recipe for failure, and the final, net genetic interests of MacDonald and of Scottish Americans are best served as part of Euro-America, with its much greater political potential.

The ethnoracial paradox is that while race and ethnicity are real, biological entities, their boundaries are not rigidly determined solely based on biology.  The same applies to the concept of color and no one denies the objective reality of, say, red vs. blue, even though the distinctions at the boundaries of red vs. orange and blue vs. green can become fuzzy and subjective.  The categorization of the boundaries of real entities by the human mind is a fact of our reality.  The construction of racial and racial identities starts with a biological foundation, and the rest of Identity is built upon that - using cultural artifacts as one key ingredient.  All of this is perfectly consistent with genetic interests as ultimate interests.  Genetic interests are what they are.  How they are best pursued delves into the proximate realm.

Net vs. Gross Genetic Interests

Brief explanation about ethnic genetic interests (EGI).

I sometimes use terms like "net EGI" and "gross EGI" and so a brief explanation is given here.

Gross EGI defines the raw genetic interests derived from genetic data - it's simply the effect of genetic distance multiplied by numbers (e.g., Salter's "child equivalents").  Net genetic interests (which can be represented by the same metrics - i.e., child equivalents) is the intersection between gross EGI and inclusive fitness.  In other words, net EGI is the final ("net") outcome on EGI of whatever choices people make to pursue (or not pursue) their ethnic genetic interests.

An example based on personal/familial genetic interests may be helpful.  You are genetically closer to your brother than to a random stranger (gross genetic interests).  Assume your brother is deranged and comes to a family reunion intent on killing everyone present (himself and you included).  He is stopped from doing so by that random stranger.  That stranger represents a greater boost to your net personal/familial genetic interests than does your brother (who, if successful in his plan, would have been a net negative influence).

The same principle applies to choices influencing genetic interests at the level of ethnies.  A co-ethnic politician intent on flooding your nation with millions of alien immigrants is a net negative on your EGI, while a non-co-ethnic (relatively speaking) politician who is an immigration restrictionist for your nation is a net positive.  Of course, that's not a reason to ignore gross genetic interests, but one always must keep in mind the endgame: what is the final outcome yielding the best EGI that is realistically possible under any given set of circumstances?