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Culture War Roundup for the week of August 7, 2023

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I have sometimes during this time felt a tad bit guilty for procreating with my partner with our comparatively average genes. Yes, we will probably pass on good intelligence, but what about physical traits and health? Is there anything parental love can provide that can compare to the confidence that comes with being a 190cm athletic, but yet very intelligent young man?

Why do you feel guilty?

It's true, some people are absolutely superior to others, and this superiority has a genetic basis. But the tall athletic Harvard PhD isn't that much better than you and your offspring, all things considered. Most of them too, just like the "general population", will be consigned to the dustbin of history immediately after their deaths, remembered in a few generations as nothing more than a node in an ancestry.com family tree, if at all. Beauty, health, and intelligence are all erased in the oblivion of death. This is not in any way a call to nihilism; merely a call to put things in perspective.

At any rate, the idea that we can simply know in advance how to design the ubermensch, and that it is straightforwardly desirable to populate the earth with such ubermenschen, is at best questionable. Life is too complex for that; there are too many unexpected things that flower in unexpected places:

Ennoblement through degeneration. - [...] The danger facing these strong communities founded on similarly constituted, firm-charactered individuals is that of the gradually increasing inherited stupidity such as haunts all stability like its shadow. It is the more unfettered, uncertain and morally weaker individuals upon whom spiritual progress depends in such communities: it is the men who attempt new things and, in general, many things. Countless numbers of this kind perish on account of their weakness without producing any very visible effect; but in general, and especially when they leave posterity, they effect a loosening up and from time to time inflict an injury on the stable element of a community. It is precisely at this injured and weakened spot that the whole body is as it were inoculated with something new; its strength must, however, be as a whole sufficient to receive this new thing into its blood and to assimilate it. Degenerate natures are of the highest significance wherever progress is to be effected. Every progress of the whole has to be preceded by a partial weakening. The strongest natures preserve the type, the weaker help it to evolve.

-- Human, All Too Human, §224

I philosophically 100% on board with this.

However, when I step out of the philosophical realm and into the practical world, and when I forget about the rest of humanity, and just focus on my own little family, I think its obvious that some outcomes are a little bit better. All else being equal it is better to be taller and with a lower risk of diabetes and heart disease. This is true even if none of those things will change the course of history.

Yes, it’s certainly natural to want to minimize physical suffering. But unless you or your wife has a major congenital disorder that you know will be passed onto your children, I wouldn’t worry about it. I wouldn’t lose sleep over a 2% greater lifetime risk of diabetes.