    44

    Sovi

    ets as they took control of the most populous country on the

    planet--China.  In 1956, Moscow ordered its tanks into Hungary, and

    the U.S. didn't dare come to that country's defense.  And in 1960, an

    island nation just a speedboat ride from Miami declared its right to

    throw its lot in with the Soviet Bloc.94    As  the  Russians  rose  in  the

    pecking order, their pool of friends increased.  And as we sank, the

    number of our faithful companions  declined.

    The cumulative result was a dramatic increase in the number of

    Soviet allies and a drastic shrinkage in ours.  During the early 50's our

    friends in the United Nations were so numerous that any issue

    submitted to a vote went resoundingly our way.  By the mid-sixties,

    frequently almost every nation voted against us.

    For a superorganism, slips in the pecking order can produce

    catastrophe.  The Yanomamo--the "fierce people" of the jungles around

    South America's Orinoco River--pride themselves on constant warfare.

    Fighting is their way of life.  But to make war, you need allies.  Who

    gets the most allies?  The tribe on the top of the pecking order.  And

    who gets the least?  The tribe on the bottom.

    Like the chicken at the bottom of the pecking order, everyone

    takes advantage of a trounced tribe's helplessness.  Rival groups raid

    the low-ranking clan over and over again.  Enemies lay in wait by its

    gardens.  Knowing this, the shunned tribe is forced to hide out in the

    jungle, where it can't get decent food.  Succulent yams lay in the soil of

    their garden plot, but these picked-on people can't even think of

    digging them up.  They know they'll be setting themselves up for

    ambush.

    Stronger tribes attack the group on the bottom to  steal its

    women.  Knowing this, the men of the friendless clan remain

    perpetually on alert.  Slowly the tribesmen without allies grow more

    starved and exhausted. Sometimes in the end they no longer have the

    strength to survive 95.  Deprived of friends, the tribe at the pecking

    order's foot may finally disappear, its most desirable members and

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