    16

    Marxism and imperialism aren't the only urges for plunder

    disguised by pious finery.  The "just" God of the Old Testament

    promised the Hebrews someone else's milk and honey.  When

    Mohammed brought the "merciful" words of Allah to Mecca, he

    handed out a rationalization that helped the Meccans snatch a third of

    the known world from its previous owners.  The Crusaders later used

    Christianity as an excuse to try seizing many of those  lands back from

    the Mohammedans.24

    Ideas do more than merely bond a group together.  They justify

    that group's expansion.  Like the hungry amoeba, the superorganism is

    anxious to grow.  It is anxious to feast on the flesh of its neighbors.

    Ideas dress the act of cannibalism in the garb of rectitude.

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