    36

    Among the rats, the notion of "replanting" their cage had been

    dictated by a gene.  The rodents exterminated those whose genetic

    complement differed from their own.  But genes were not what united

    the Puritans.  Puritans bore the blood of all the tribes who had made

    up England--the Picts, the Jutes, the Saxons, the Angles, and even a few

    Normans.  These men of holy fervor were drawn together by an idea.

    They were welded into a social body by a meme.

    At first, Cromwell's dream was just that.  He was a country

    gentleman of little reputation and even fewer accomplishments.  He

    had made it as a member of Parliament, but had shown no flair

    whatsoever as a politician.  Then in 1642 England broke out in civil

    war.  On one side were those who wanted the country ruled by

    Parliament.  They tended to be the folks who believed that you could

    reach God simply by reading the Good Book.  Among the Parlia-

    mentarians were Cromwell and the Puritans.

    On the other side were the supporters of the King.  They were

    believers in authority, men who insisted that the sole way to God was

    through the priests and bishops of the Anglican church.  Each group

    coalesced into a superorganism.  And those two superorganisms

    locked horns and fought.

    On the battlefield, Oliver discovered a side of himself he didn't

    know he had.  War exhilarated him.  Killing gave him a rush of

    pleasure.  The Cromwellian mind that so far had merely muddled

    through life came alive in the heat of battle.  It was what you might

    have expected from someone who, as a teenager, had enjoyed bashing

    people with a stick.  At the age of 43, Oliver Cromwell had found

    himself!

    When he was in the heat of the fight, the bullets whistling around

    him, the swords cutting through arms and necks on every side,

    Cromwell  was sure the voice of God was speaking to him.   He heard

    the whispered messages of a meme.  Whenever Cromwell won a battle,

    it was confirmation that he'd interpreted the Lord's voice correctly.

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