My Take | Seed of Putin idea unlikely to grow among war widows
- The Kremlin has hit upon a science-based, morale-boosting scheme for its soldiers fighting in Ukraine – a free service to preserve their sperm. But it’s more hype for the male psyche than a realistic child-bearing option for the women left behind
In 2003, an extraordinary study in historical genetics made headlines around the world: one in 200 men alive today are direct descendants of Genghis Khan. The study traced the Y-chromosomes exclusive to men from 2,000 males randomly selected from across Eurasia. From that, researchers extrapolated that about 0.5 per cent of males, or roughly 16 million men in the world, could call the great Genghis Khan their direct ancestor.
This week, there is another sensational news item about the sperm of warriors. Well, Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered to preserve the spermatozoa of Russian soldiers who take part in the Ukraine invasion, or what Moscow has called a “special military operation”.
There is, I think, an instinctive interest in both stories because at a semi-conscious or primitive level, and against civilisation, education and social conditioning, being male means being able to preserve and spread your DNA. That is, incidentally, a fundamental thesis of sociobiology, which itself is a controversial discipline.
More than any man who ever lived, the Mongol warrior-ruler managed to spread his seed far and wide. That should not surprise anyone. After all, he did amass the largest empire on land in history, however short-lived it might have been.
If the famous selfish gene theory of sociobiology is right, our bodies are just temporary receptacles for gene pools fighting each other for dominance like triad mobs over territories.
As the theory’s most famous proponent Richard Dawkins once wrote: “When we have served our purpose we are cast aside. But genes are denizens of geological time: genes are forever.” Well, human consciousness often gets in the way of the gene’s agenda, but that’s another long story.
Genghis Khan ought to be the patron saint of the theory. Historically, warriors reaped the greatest rewards – women, wealth and reputation, which in turn enabled the amassing of more wealth and women. But they also took the greatest risk – death.
