GENES, HISTORY AND CULTURE

there are people in the world who think that certain populations are prone to certain maladies of behavior. they say things like 'chinese people all lie and cheat' or 'italians are all loud' or iranians are all 'fundamentalists' or 'christians are all this, or jews are all that...' (i could go on). they think it is somehow bred in the bone and they apply it to whole peoples. how then would they explain the germans? after the second world war (it seems strange that we even own that phrase) the east germans were supposedly known to enthusiastically denounce each other with accusations of being anti-government; the same is true of the north koreans. how then would these people explain the fact that nothing of the sort was going on in west germany and it is not going on now in a unified germany on either side of the old divide? same for korea. these german and korean people share an identical gene pool; in fact, many of them are related across borders. the chinese people share the same gene pool with the japanese, koreans and many other people of asia; not only that, the whole world shares the same gene pool. you who are reading this, that is you and me.

it is true that different countries with different governments and different histories manifest different cultures and that some governments and some cultures are more brutal and some people more inured to a hard life, but this is historical and situational, not genetic; there is nothing unique about the individuals living there compared to individuals living elsewhere. you could find your counterpart in any country; you could find someone with opposite views of life and society in any country.

it is a dangerous form of ingroup/outgroup hostility which is more likely to be believed by people who have not known enough people from other places and cultures, or who are themselves rather fundamental in their thinking. it does not promote harmony and understanding on this tiny little orb, and promoting harmony and understanding on this tiny little orb is the only thing that will save it (and the mostly similar individuals who live on it) from oblivion. 

if you are hoping armies and power and domination of others will save you, or your country, you are hoping in vain.