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    Concept number four: the neural net, the group mind whose

    eccentric mode of operation manipulates our emotions and turns us into

    components of a massive learning machine.

    Concept number five: the pecking order.  The naturalist who

    discovered this "dominance hierarchy" in a Norwegian farmyard called

    it the key to despotism.  Pecking orders exist among men, monkeys,

    wasps... and even nations.  They help explain why the danger of

    barbarians is real, and why the assumptions of our foreign policies are

    often wrong.

    Five simple ideas.  Yet the insights they yield are amazingly rich.

    They reveal why doctors are not always as powerful as they seem, but

    why we are compelled to believe in them nonetheless.  They explain

    how Hinduism--the religion of ultimate peace--grew from the greed of a

    tribe of bloodthirsty killers, and why nature disposes of men far more

    casually than women.  They shed light on America's decline... and the

    dangers that lie ahead of us.

    Above all, they illuminate a mystery that has eternally eluded

    man... the root of the evil that haunts our lives.  For within the five small

    ideas we will pursue there lurks a force that rules us.

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