Nordicism

Nordicism, also known as the Nordic theory, is the name given to a historical racial theory and political movement that, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, advocated the existence of a Nordic race, sometimes also referred to as the Aryan race, and the promotion of its interests. While some of its adherents advocated racism and white supremacy, including the view that other races should be conquered and/or subjugated, other prominent racial theorists who described themselves as Nordicists viewed Nordics as an endangered racial group and advocated racial segregation and/or separation, worrying about them potentially disappearing due to non-Nordic mass immigration.

The ideology of Nordicism was popular in some Northwestern, Central, and Northern European countries, as well as in North America, Oceania and European colonies in Africa. The National Socialist German Workers' Party (NSDAP) claimed that the Nordic race was the most superior of the Aryan race and constituted a master race (Herrenvolk).

History of Nordicism

The Nordic race was seen as distinct from the Alpine race and the Mediterranean race. These groups, as well as others such as the East Baltic race, were seen as subdivisions of the Caucasian race.

Morphologically, the Nordic race was argued to be associated with characteristics such as blue eyes, blonde hair, and tallness. However, more important than these was a craniometric measure, having a high cephalic index - a head that is considerably longer, front to back, than it is wide.

Some Nordicists made controversial and far-reaching claims of much of distinguished world history being the work of Nordics. One example being that rulers of Ancient Egypt, Ancient Rome, and Ancient Greece, the Aryan invaders of India, and most of the great men of the Italian Renaissance were argued by some Nordicists to have been Nordics themselves. Some White Christians have even claimed Jesus Christ to have been Nordic (or Aryan), though there is little supporting evidence for such claims.

Nordicists could be politically active and advocate measures such as restricting non-Nordic immigration to the United States, leaving all multiracial territories such as Puerto Rico, and avoiding attempting to spread "American" values to non-whites, since their own ways of doing things for them may be as good or better. An influential book was The Passing of the Great Race (1916) by Madison Grant, which influenced the racial policy of National Socialist Germany.

Nordicism largely disappeared after World War II, mostly due to its controversial affiliation with the Third Reich, which lost the war, combined with the legacy of the Holocaust and increasing influence of race denialism. Even the prominent anthropologist Carleton S. Coon defined Nordicism as "the misuse of racial terminology for political purposes, based on the unproved assumption that Nordics are superior in mental and moral attributes to members of other races."

Some aspects of Nordicism have been argued to possibly be related to claimed genetics differences, such as supposed differences between white people in the Northern United States, who are generally more politically liberal, and white people in the Southern United States, who are usually more conservative-leaning. There are also alleged differences in parts of Europe.

21st century

The self-described race realist Jared Taylor wrote in a 2009 article on Nordicism that:

"Perhaps it really is all nonsense, though northern Europeans seem to differ from southerners in both appearance and temperament, and it would seem unlikely that if European groups have consistent differences in skull shape there would be no differences inside the skull. Science is not likely to look closely into this question, however, and there are other group differences that are far more worthy of study."

Nonetheless, nationalistic anthropologists still consider the existence of the Nordic race, or Germanic race, although declining oppression of other races. The idea, also within the international eugenics movement, is once again on the rise in the 21st century, due to miscegenation and claims of a white genocide. The concept of a reborn "Germanic" or "Nordic" race is a leitmotif of those who fear what they see as the downfall of the "white European race". Like in the first part of the nineteenth century, discussions on the origin and identity of the Germanic peoples nation are once again dominated by historians, linguists, and folklorists. Archaeology and physical anthropology have been added to the field of inquiry. The idea of a psychic unity of humankind has been described as a left-wing political agenda.

Every year thousands board rickety boats, hide in the backs of trucks, planes, and container ships, cross miles of barren desert on foot . . . All to get themselves to a land where they can be ruled by a racial group far distant from their own. [...] While it’s not clear what mix of genes / language / culture has permeated the Germanic space, we have to draw lines somewhere. We consider ‘Teutonic’ all the descendents of NW European Germanic language speakers, including all of the British Isles and their offspring-states, Scandinavia (with Finland), Germany, Austria, and Benelux. (We do not include South Africa, as even though it was built and maintained by Teutons, the reins of power have now been passed to others.) Though we are always told that the global ‘South’ wants to migrate to the ‘North,’ the reality is more nuanced. Hundreds of millions of people from the third world would like very much to live under the rule of a Teutonic people. Why is this so? We shall turn to the indicators to try to understand.

See also

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Further reading

• Alfred P. Schultz: Race or Mongrel, 1908
• Madison Grant: The Passing of the Great Race, 1916

External links

• The Adventures of Nordic Man
• Nordic Man Comes to the New World
• What Race Were the Greeks and Romans?