This book is about the social body in which we are the unwitting cells. It is about the hidden ways in which that social group manipulates our psychology, and even our biology. It is about how a social organism scrambles for survival and works for mastery over other organisms of its kind. It is about how we, without the slightest sense of what the

Why does the Hindu religion tell its adherents to go with the flow, to abhor the things of this world, to set aside earthly desires, to hope only for an improvement of their lot after this life is over? Because Hinduism was designed to keep the conquered Shudras in their place.

The nation slipping downward averts its eyes, but the country on the rise is often vigorously alert, looking for the tiniest opportunity to lunge toward the top. Instead of turning their backs and hoping for peace, superorganisms on the move often manufacture confrontations.

But how does an individual bee gauge the need for nectar in the hive? She does not step inside the habitation to check how full the honeycombs are. Incoming transport bees sense the demand for the cargo they deliver by a simple social cue, the kind of cue that humans have their antennae out for at cocktail parties. If a burdened bee arrives at the

If you can convince enough people of your worldview, no matter how wrong you are, you’re right! The real significance of a meme is its power to pull together a superorganism.

But as they grew fat with prosperity, British industrialists overlooked three simple facts: (a) every technological breakthrough eventually grows old; (b) new inventions arrive to replace it; and (c) the country that dominates these new technologies often rules the world.

The cursus honororum was a splendid motivator. It impelled Rome’s best and brightest to dedicate nearly all their energies to the betterment of their society.352

Margaret Mead says every human group makes a simple rule: thou shalt not kill members of our gang, but everyone else is fair game. According to Mead, each group says that all humans are brothers and declares that murdering humans is out of the question. Most groups, however, have very strange means of defining who is human.

This pious self-aggrandizement of a conquering barbarian tribe led to the Indian caste system.