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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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