So what exactly is Aryanism anyway?
(Don't judge this post by its title -- it's not what you think)In the third millennium B.C. the Aryans were a nomadic hunting people that originated in what is now Iran. Their cultural area extended from Ireland in the west to India in the east. Linguists tell us that the names "Iran" and "Ireland" come from the name of this people, the Arya. The Aryans invaded India from the north, conquered the Indus valley agricultural people and became the Brahmans, the highest of the Hindu castes. Their language was Sanskrit and in Sanskrit Arya means "noble person". If any group truly deserves the title "the Aryan race", it would be these people. My guess is that they probably looked most like Persians, that is not blond haired and blue eyed.
Fast forward to the fourth century A.D. in the Eastern Roman Empire and "Aryanism" is a heresy that contended that Jesus, though the son of God, was not himself divine. Any Romans of the Eastern Empire who subscribed to this belief also, for the most part, almost certainly did not have blond hair and blue eyes. However it is possible that a few of the Germanic barbarians who also subscribed to this early form of Christianity, were blonde and blue eyed.
Fast forward again to the 1930s when we have Hitler's "Aryanism". I've never looked in detail at what Hitler specifically meant by this, but it is interesting that his idea of a blond, blue eyed "Master Race" would exclude himself -- being a short, brown haired, brown eyed, genocidal megalomaniac with a funny moustache. Again, no blond hair and blue eyes on that Germanic barbarian.
Today I guess you can see a loose connection between Hitler's "Aryanism" and the white supremacist thing "Aryanism" is now -- though it's become generic to most Caucasians, right? I mean, I suppose at a minimum they don't like Caucasian Jews and Caucasian homosexuals, but they attempt to include more than just blondes with blue eyes, right? Of course I wouldn't really know, me having nothing to do with any such vile, intolerant practice. Of any kind.
But how did we get here from a fourth century heresy about the nature of Jesus? How did we get there from the ancient Arya? Seems like since the end of the ancient Arya, "Aryans" were forever doomed to have a bad name.
As usual, I have more questions than answers, but it seems I know more about what the Aryans were than what they are now. That's probably a good thing!