De Gobineau also recognized a decline intra-racially in that, he saw among the ruling race, the most intelligent and productive citizens had the fewest children, while the lower elements were extremely prolific. The character of genes is much stronger than the institutions of mankind, for institutions come and go, while the genes are forged over millennia. It is the genes themselves that construct the very character of the societies in which they thrive. Every nation rises or sinks according to its genes. Over time, genes override every advantage or impediment.
Human genes can make nations with the poorest of resources rich, or the richest poor.
They can inspire great universities or make ruins where greatness stood. They can erect tyranny over once free men or resurrect freedom from the worst of oppression. Social structures created by race can be imposed on another, but in time the genes, if preserved, will assert themselves. The power of the gene is the source of space travel or of squalor, of civilization or the jungle. In the end genes will out.