ZIONISM FROM THF. STANDPOINT OF ITS VICTIMS 77 look like that) [ would put my finger on it and say. When I grow up I will go there.16 G eography and a passion for maps developed into an organ­ ized matter mainly devoted to acquiring vast overseas territor­ ies. A n d , Conrad also said, this . , . conqucst of the earth, which mostly means the taking it away from those who have a different complexion or slightly flatter noses than ourseives, is not a pretty thing when you look into it too much. What redeems it is the idea only. An idea at the back of it; not a sentimental pretence but an idea— something you can set up. and bow down before, and offer a sacrifice to . . . 11 Conrad makes the point better than anyone, I think. The power to conquer territory is only in part a matter o f physical force: there is the strong moral and intellectual component making the conquest itself secondary to an idea, which dignifies (and indeed hastens) pure force with arguments drawn from scicnce, m orality, ethics, and a genera) philoso­ phy. Everything in Western culture potentially capable of dignifying the acquisition of new domains— as a new science, for example, acquires new intellectual territory for itself— could be put at the servicc o f colonial adventures. And ivaj put, the “ idea’' always informing the conquest, making it entirely palatable. One example o f such an idea spoken about openly as a quite normal justification for what today would be called colonial aggression, is to be found in these passages by Paul Leroy-B eaulicu, a leading French geographer in the [870s: A society colonizes, when having itself reached a high degree of maturity and of strength, it procreates, it protects, it places in good conditions of development, and it brings to virility a new society to which it has given birth. Colonization is one of the most complex and delicate phenomena of social physio­ logy.