Post by galvez on Jan 23, 2005 2:59:01 GMT -5
I decided to write why I oppose Medicism. The main reason is that I don’t think it’s a good idea for Spaniards to be tied down in any sort of dependency with other groups. The second reason is because it legitimizes and paradoxically provokes the Nordicists.
Originally I thought it would be a good idea to take MX Rienzi’s “Pan-European” ideology and modify it to “Pan-Mediterraneanism.” I saw how some American racialists were ridiculing the “swarthy Southern Italian” Rienzi as trying too hard to fit into a movement dominated by Central and Northern Europeans. I believed that with Spaniards, Italians and Greeks united, some sort of front could be established that would be stronger than each group working as individual units or as factotums for racialists who thought but often suppressed feelings that these groups were inferior.
I also believed that with Mediterraneans asserting their own territory, just like the Nordicists, hostilities between Mediterraneans and Nordicists could be reduced. As I came to find out, this just wasn’t enough for some people, and the claims that Mediterraneans were uglier, less evolved, “muds,” freeloaders of a nation supposedly built by Nordics (it would be more accurate to include Alpines, Borrebys and other groups) continued. It occurred to me that for some the debates were more of a cathartic personal release than an attempt to improve society or even their race, since these attitudes are clearly counterproductive and repel normal Northern Europeans (who, incidentally, are being displaced by Mexicans and Blacks in the U.S.).
It’s interesting that in the way Mediterraneans are characterized by certain extremists, they have much in common with Negroes, although physical anthropology finds very sharp differences. I have to admit I am at a total loss with the comparison between Southern Europeans and Negroes, but I suppose one explanation might be that judgment is clouded when emotions get in the way. It’s also a play on the myth of Southern Europeans being “tainted” with Negroid blood, spread by the likes of Arthur Kemp and R.P. Oliver.
Mainly I don’t want people to think Spaniards are trying to steal anyone’s history. I feel at some level revulsion at the thought of an eastern Mediterranean or any other person accusing me of trying to steal history. As I wrote in a previous post at Dodona, the Phoenicians had a more direct influence on the Iberians than the Greeks. The Spaniards are Romanized, though culturally rather than biologically (thus the term “wannabe Roman” shows historical ignorance). I hadn’t read much of anthropology till recently so I wasn’t aware of the extent of overlap (or lack thereof) between Spaniards, Italians and Greeks, so at worst all I can be accused of is some sloppy miscalculation or ignorance rather than maliciously attempting to steal the history of some group. I’m more of a future person than a past person anyway: let’s build a future by educating ourselves, liberalizing our minds, adapting to a modern world, yet recognizing the immutable laws of nature as they apply to race.
One problem confronting some Southern Europeans, I believe, is a lack of solid ideas from which to base arguments. For a long time race debates have been dominated and monopolized by Nordic supremacists, who have had the opportunity to practice with and refine their ideas over time. Southern Europeans, however, lack the necessary memes (replicating ideas) at this point: there are many charges coming at them from very fringe individuals; and dealing with these charges successfully takes time and practice. There just has not been an organized pool of Southern European intellectuals to confront this issue. Interestingly enough, this unpreparedness is precisely the consequence of the lack of power and influence of the Nordicists in modern times, because, by being perceived as nonthreatening, Southern European intellectuals, like most intellectuals, have focused their energies on living the American dream, and dealing with contemporary issues rather than with issues resolved almost a century ago! As I have found out, though, some good material can be dug up from old anthropology books to deal with many of the arguments brought to the fore by neo-Nordicists. Hooton, Coon, Benedict (I will review one of her books soon) and others weren’t too impressed by their arguments back then, and I doubt they would be today.
Lest I be accused of hypocrisy, I believe all European groups are miscegenating with non-Europeans at levels far above previous periods in history. I do notice Mediterraneans mixing with mestizos, just as I see blonde women with Negroes. However, I do believe that within Europe and North America most of the race-mixing is being committed by Northern Europeans. Notwithstanding the conquest of Amerindian women by the Conquistadores, Spain has managed to maintain itself as a racially homogeneous nation (according to Coon). I don’t think Spaniards are just going to disappear, despite the troubles they face in modern times.
LOL! 
