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Inspired by the ongoing debate here and on twitter, a tale of two countries.
Ideastan produces the vast majority of the world's arts, culture, and scientific output. All countries of the world adopt their ways of thinking, their form of government, their philosophy, their fashion, etc. Total cultural victory, complete dominance forever. The people of Ideastan also allow lots of immigration - so much immigration that after a thousand years, there's nobody left who could reasonably be said to look like an Ideastani, and tracing your genetic lineage back to a Founding Stock Ideastani is very difficult. The immigrants all totally adopt Ideastani culture, too.
Bloodtopia follows Ideastan's culture, science, fashion, etc. But they never allow any immigration, and they don't frequently mate with anybody who isn't also a Bloodtopian. Sometimes their society goes through really damaging long-term trends based on fertility shocks - huge population growth, then decline. After a thousand years, the people of Bloodtopia can all trace their lineage back exactly to people from a thousand years before. There is a long unbroken chain where everybody agrees, these people are Bloodtopians, these other people are not, and never the twain do mix, to any appreciable degree. Bloodtopians all pass their genes on to at least one child, for the most part, so it's rare for any Bloodtopian family line to go totally extinct.
Which one of these societies is more successful?
Which one of these socieities would you rather be a part of?
Ideastan and it's not even close. Bloodtopia is gonna invariably be significantly poorer than Ideastan too and lose large portions of its youth to Ideastan whenever the going gets rough.
That's ok, they'll all be banished a few years later for the high crime of Changing Their Mind.
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