Gobineau made note in the build up of a civilization there are two different bloodlines present. Through those bloodlines, the more superior bloodline becomes tainted and becomes susceptible to decline and loosing their strength. Those born from this tainted bloodline are called degenerates or "degenerate men" as Gobineau would put it. In his own words, "the people has no longer the same intrinsic value as it had before, because it has no longer the same blood in its veins, continual adulterations having gradually affected the quality of that blood" (p45). From there, Gobineau introduces the two forces that plays a role in creating "degenerate men" and the paradox in the race civilization theory.
The laws of repulsion and attraction are the two acting forces in a civilization. The law of repulsion is the common factor in all races to desire to stick to their own kind. This is necessary because being of the surperior race, it keeps the bloodlines pure and the strength/domainance remains unshifted. As time goes, the law of attraction takes effect in the civilization and causes a natural shift. The law of attraction is, in so many words, the attraction to minorities or anyone governed by the surperior race (i.e. the white European race). Gobineau says, "Thus mankind lives in obedience to two laws, one of repulsion, the other of attraction; these act with different forces on different peoples. The first is fully respected only by those races which can never raise themselves above the elementary completeness of the tribal life, while the power of the second, on the contrary, is the more absolute, as the racial units on which it is exercised are more capable of development" (p49). With the forces of repulsion and attraction at play in a civilization there lies the decline.
Before all of this comes into play, war is essential to create this civilization and spawn the inequalities of the human race. In order to create a civilization, two tribes would have to create conflict and absorb the weaker one. Under the law of repulsion, the sequence is; war, war prisoners, master/slave, assimilated industrialized workers, and lastly class distinction after becoming apart of the group/civilization now. Under the law of attraction, the sequence is; war, absorb the land and people, gain two destinies (the conquered and the conquerors), degeneration (race mixing/infection of foreign blood), and then decline and die. Gobineau says, "Thus, while by their very genius for civilization they collect round them the different elements in which they are to be absorbed, they are the victims, first of their original smallness of number, and then of a host of secondary causes which combine together for their destruction" (p51).
His perspective is an interesting one however I do find it bias to place the white race as the automatics surperior race and refer to the inferior race as blacks. Yet to me I see the whole degeneration and and decline part, it seems like a mean case of karma. But I digress. Gobineau's comparison from the human race to civilization is an interesting one however I think it needs some tweaking!
The laws of repulsion and attraction are the two acting forces in a civilization. The law of repulsion is the common factor in all races to desire to stick to their own kind. This is necessary because being of the surperior race, it keeps the bloodlines pure and the strength/domainance remains unshifted. As time goes, the law of attraction takes effect in the civilization and causes a natural shift. The law of attraction is, in so many words, the attraction to minorities or anyone governed by the surperior race (i.e. the white European race). Gobineau says, "Thus mankind lives in obedience to two laws, one of repulsion, the other of attraction; these act with different forces on different peoples. The first is fully respected only by those races which can never raise themselves above the elementary completeness of the tribal life, while the power of the second, on the contrary, is the more absolute, as the racial units on which it is exercised are more capable of development" (p49). With the forces of repulsion and attraction at play in a civilization there lies the decline.
Before all of this comes into play, war is essential to create this civilization and spawn the inequalities of the human race. In order to create a civilization, two tribes would have to create conflict and absorb the weaker one. Under the law of repulsion, the sequence is; war, war prisoners, master/slave, assimilated industrialized workers, and lastly class distinction after becoming apart of the group/civilization now. Under the law of attraction, the sequence is; war, absorb the land and people, gain two destinies (the conquered and the conquerors), degeneration (race mixing/infection of foreign blood), and then decline and die. Gobineau says, "Thus, while by their very genius for civilization they collect round them the different elements in which they are to be absorbed, they are the victims, first of their original smallness of number, and then of a host of secondary causes which combine together for their destruction" (p51).
His perspective is an interesting one however I do find it bias to place the white race as the automatics surperior race and refer to the inferior race as blacks. Yet to me I see the whole degeneration and and decline part, it seems like a mean case of karma. But I digress. Gobineau's comparison from the human race to civilization is an interesting one however I think it needs some tweaking!
I concur with you on the presence of racial bias in Gobineau's theory on the progression of various human civilizations and race. His theory seems to hold that white men are the pure, truly capable sect of human blood simply as a trivial fact. He scarcely cherry-picks specific civilizations from his time, as well as from history, in order to justify his very stagnant proposal of racial effects on civil progression. He also seems to give credit to "impure" race mixing for any non-white civilizations while concurrently deeming them inferior to purely white civilization. I sincerely wonder what series of thoughts led up to the creation of these proposals, and what makes him so confident in their validity when they seems so ethically and historically flawed/biased?
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