Arkian Ethnicity Idea

The main problem in the world today is the declining quality of people.  The only enduring solution to this problem is an intentional ethnicity, which I will explain below.  I am naming my specific idea for an intentional ethnicity "Arkian", which I will also explain below.

Those who don't recognize the current declining quality of people probably shouldn't bother to read this post.  This post is for those who do recognize this problem and are interested in finding a solution.  I believe that the decline is both cultural and genetic, and that a solution must address both of these factors.  These factors are strongly related because a bad genetic population can't sustain a good culture, and a bad culture is dysgenic and will cause genetic decay.  The only solution that does address both is intentional ethnicity.

What is ethnicity?  According to Wikipedia:

"An ethnic group or ethnicity is a grouping of people who identify with each other on the basis of shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups such as a common set of traditions, ancestry, language, history, society, culture, nation, religion or social treatment within their residing area."

Ethnicity is not race, but any ethnicity that holds together will become a race.  Ethnicity encompasses both culture and genetics, so a good ethnicity is a solution to the declining quality of people.

How are ethnicities formed?  Typically people living together without too much outside influence will naturally become an ethnicity.  Parts of the world that naturally isolate small groups, for example mountainous areas, tend to generate new ethnicities.  In contrast, cosmopolitan areas tend to destroy any ethnicities that live there.  The normal means for an ethnicity to preserve itself is to occupy a piece of land and limit immigration there.  This is a nation.  But the Jews have demonstrated that this isn't the only way.  The key requirements for an ethnicity is clearly defined membership and limited immigration for those who aren't children of members.  Jews meet these requirements without having national borders.  They do this by having strict rules for membership and rules for immigration (conversion).

The modern world is becoming increasingly globalist.  Land-based nations are being destroyed by immigration.  The solution is to learn from the Jews and create intentional ethnicities that are not based on land.  The core requirements of such an ethnicity include a clear definition of membership.  Children whose parents (both) are members should automatically become members.  This provides continuity.  Immigration policy should be clear.  Membership/citizenship should be irrevocable so that dissidents can present their views.  But there should also be a way out of the group, probably by marrying out in which case the children may not be members.  By allowing genes to come in by meeting immigration requirements, and allowing genes to leave that aren't ethnocentric enough, you will produce a race which is ethnocentric and reflects the values inherent in the immigration requirements.  Immigration requirements that test good traits like intelligence will result in a eugenic ethnicity which will generate a superior race.

Let's consider possible alternatives to ethnicity.  One alternative is race - pick a good race and preserve it.  But this fails to address culture, and this means that a bad dysgenic culture will ruin the race.

Another option is just community - form a community of good people.  But this isn't sustainable.

After the South lost the American civil war, a number of Southerners (Confederates) set up communities in Latin America, particularly Brazil.  What happened to them?  According to Wikipedia:

"The first generation of Confederados remained an insular community. As is typical, by the third generation, most of the families had intermarried with native Brazilians or immigrants of other origins. Descendants of the Confederados increasingly spoke the Portuguese language and identified themselves as Brazilians. As the area around Santa Bárbara d'Oeste and Americana turned to the production of sugar cane and society became more mobile, the Confederados moved to cities for urban jobs. Today, only a few descendant families still live on land owned by their ancestors. The descendants of the Confederados are mostly scattered throughout Brazil."

Here is this community today.

This story is an example of intentional communities.  Intentional communities generally don't last long.  They have no natural immunity to the surrounding culture, so they get absorbed by it.

Could the Southerners have avoided this fate?  Probably if they had followed the example of Jews and formed an intentional ethnicity, they could have survived.

Lastly, let's consider religion.  All of the major western religions peaked and then fell.  Why?  Because religion can't sustain the quality of the people when too much success causes them to become degenerate.  Successful cultures tend to result in immigration of bad cultures and genes, and result in the population becoming more lazy and selfish.  As the quality of the people drops, they re-interpret their religion or just ignore it until the religion fails.

There is one serious attempt to combine religion with ethnicity.  This is the traditional Anabaptists.  They are a religious group that only marry each other, so they also are an ethnicity.  The issue here is that religion totally dominates, unlike for Jews where a Jew doesn't have to follow Judaism.  Why does this matter?  One could argue in favor of the Anabaptist approach by saying that this preserves values.  But the minus side is that it is very inflexible.  For example the Anabaptists reject violence because of their religion.  This inflexibility could cause them to be wiped out.  Jews (and other ethnic groups) don't have this kind of inflexibility, so they can adapt.  Another minor issue with the Anabaptist approach is that this puts an upper limit on the intelligence of members since intelligent people often have unconventional interpretations of religion.

While Jews are the best current example of an intentional ethnicity, they are far from ideal as I explained in The Decline of the Jews.  The ideal would be to create a new intentional ethnicity designed for quality and endurance.  I am naming my proposed intentional ethnicity "Arkian".  The suffix "-ian" is common for nationalities and ethnicities.  The base is "Ark" taken from Noah's ark with the idea being that this ethnicity is designed to be a refuge to preserve what is good about humanity in the face of a global dysgenic culture that is making almost all of humanity go bad.

To be an Arkian, either be born from two Arkian parents or pass a test on Old Testament knowledge or on Quran knowledge and a test of Go skill.  I carefully selected this criteria for membership to produce the kind of ethnicity that I would want.  For programmers:

be born from two Arkian parents OR (pass a test (on Old Testament knowledge OR on Quran knowledge) AND a test of Go skill)

An ethnicity must have shared attributes including things like genetics and culture.  This is achieved by marrying within the group and so passing on attributes to the next generation.  This is why it is very important to have an incentive for an Arkian to marry another Arkian.  Most ethnicities are land-based, so they marry within the group naturally.  But when an ethnicity becomes too successful and so attracts many immigrants, they have a problem.  Pericles solved this for Ancient Athens by requiring that both parents are Athenian citizens for the child to be an Athenian citizen.  This is the source of my idea on this.  Judaism is not optimal in only requiring one parent (mother for Talmudic, father of Karaite) because this allows untested genes into the gene pool.

One other central reason for this criteria is that it selects for ethnocentrism.  An ethnicity that doesn't have its own land must be strongly ethnocentric to survive.  Those who are not strongly ethnocentric must leave.  I think Jews have a benefited a lot by selecting for ethnocentrism.  Since I am racially Jewish, I think I inherited a strong ethnocentric instinct but unfortunately there is no current ethnicity (including Jews) worthy of being ethnocentric towards.  Arkians should be a worthy ethnicity with a strongly ethnocentric population.

The other two requirements are tests for joining.  The first is knowing the Old Testament or the Quran.  These two books are the fundamental religious texts of western culture.  Knowledge of either book shows at least willingness to learn religion, but quite possibly is a result of some commitment to religion.  Why not the New Testament?  Because those Christian groups that reject the Old Testament are all evil.  Good Christians know the Old Testament.  Why not other scriptures?  Because only these scriptures produced successful cultures in the West.  The Old Testament covers Christians, former Jews, and moral atheists.  The Quran covers Muslims.

The second requirement is skill at the game of Go.  I was a fairly good chess player and I know most traditional games of skill, and Go is by far the best.  Go tests for intelligence, judgement, perseverance to build a skill, and ability to prioritize.  Anyone who can play Go well has the intelligence to understand scripture.  Most Muslims are an example of what happens when people who haven't developed their intelligence and perseverance try to follow a good religion (Islam), it just doesn't work.  Having Go as a requirement to become Arkian will result in Arkians being the most intelligent ethnicity in the world.

I chose two requirements because I think this is the minimum that works.  These two complement each other.  I don't want stupid religious people.  And I don't want intelligent people with no interest in good religion.  The ideal population should be intelligent and religious (the religion itself can vary).

Of course the big question is whether I can convince other people to support the Arkian idea.  I am no salesman, so I will just build my ark like Noah did.  Those who want to come on-board will be genetically saved.  Those who don't will genetically drown in a sea of human trash.