Eugenics for Defense

In my previous post, I covered factors and principles important in war.

I will now cover specific eugenic traits we should encourage for defense of a nation or a species from asteroids, pathogens, super volcanoes, expanding stars, and other threats to existence. Character and IQ are obvious and important answers.

Though beauty has no direct ethical value, it seems probable that individuals fight harder for beautiful wives and fiancees, ceteris paribus (all else being equal). Many ugly animals fight hard, but they have genes and environments extolling aggression. Reasonable men would not fight hard for a society filled with Andrea Dworkins. War stories are replete with mentions of soldiers or sailors being inspired by letters, memories or photographs from attractive wives or girlfriends.

Monogamous hypersexuality (nymphomania or satyriasis) would be another worthwhile trait. Individuals are not inspired by dead fish. Officers charged with censoring letters for military information often remark how "filthy" the letters are. (Don't expect those letters in books by Tom Brokaw.) If all a soldier has to look forward to when coming home is leftover potato soup, he might commit suicide directly or by acting recklessly. Genes that encourage couples to feel good in long term monogamous marriages should be spread. Genes that encourage falling in love, followed by falling in hate should be avoided.

Aggression should not be bred for because a) such individuals are a massive ethical problem during peacetime, and b) they are not trustworthy in war, often creating or sustaining unjust wars. Those convicted of serious crimes should be sterilized.

Cowardice must also be bred out and ethically punished.

Hypergamy can be good if redirected. Though not often mentioned, millions of men and women find bad boys and bad girls repulsive. We admonish, "Don't stick your dick in crazy." Genes tend to make copies of themselves. There is no requirement that bad boy genes make copies at a faster rate. We simply must change the environmental incentives. In well-functioning societies, a man should have to prove himself to an ethically attractive woman and her parents with virtuous actions. Ethical societies can not survive without them.

A society devoted to single, childfree hedonism will not last long. Individuals with good genes should find video games boring and insipid. The same goes for splenetic, fallacy filled mass media. Individuals should find ethical and family life entrancing. Parents with children seem more likely to help just causes, especially if they have children eight to twelve years old, ages when children seem more highly beloved by parents. But unethical familism and tribalism must also be prevented. I will cover Hamilton's Rule in a separate essay.

Xenocentrism must be bred out and ethically punished. Individuals of egoism, narcissism, and Machiavellianism must not be rewarded for grandstanding ("virtue signaling"), for altruistic acts toward unethical individuals. We must stop rewarding unethical treason and every other major form of free riding. Laws, constitutions, and standards of citizenship must be changed so that such individuals are weeded out long before they get anywhere near positions of power. Individuals should have a large, ethical retributive drive but not a drive for random revenge. Apathy, a trait best left to farm animals, must be bred out. Almost everyone in contemporary establishments should be assumed dangerous until proven otherwise.

Citizens must be bred to be able to reason well enough to recognize the differences among puppetry, pacifism, worthy patriotism, and flag wrapping parasitism (read: John McCain), along with the ability to recognize the ethical and unethical in general. They must not fanatically and reflexively resort to a political team right or wrong. Unfortunately, humans need massive genetic and environmental changes in the reason arena. In the aftermath of 9/11, George W. Bush had an approval rating of at least 90 percent, though Bush had done little in his life to be considered ethically trustworthy. The first casualty in war must not be the truth. Blind obedience sucks. Individuals should be bred to feel extreme anxiety when failing to tell the truth. Too often, contemporary individuals feel more anxiety for flirting with an unpopular truth than believing lies. Humans should see through official myths.

Though many high IQ individuals have unethical tendencies, intelligence is essential for ethical reasoning. Good reasoning requires high levels of argument comprehension, levels not obtainable by lower IQ individuals. Lower IQ individuals will also not be able to figure out how to stop asteroids and other major threats to existence. The most valuable members of society are both high IQ and high character. The least valuable are high IQ and low character. Use policies to breed the former, not the latter.