Is "perpetuate" used only for bad things that should have been stopped?
My dictionaries all say so, like to perpetuate divisions in society. But I just saw this sentence: In its earliest form, genius was concerned with the ability of the head of the family, the paterfamilis, to perpetuate himself. Also in a genetics textbook I've seen that perpetuate is used for continueing to breed or grow pure lines.

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Great question! Generally, the word relates to the continuation of negative things. The exception, as in the one you pointed out, relates to the continuation of something from extinction or oblivion.

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