Quote:
"... a cleansing of the hive,"
Yes! Thanks, Ted, that's what I was trying to recall. A race memory of "a ritual cleansing of the hive." Broad enough to be ambiguous, but specific enough to be evocative.

I don't think I quite understood the allusion when I was younger, but it seems pretty plain now.

I did understand that it was supposed to be something that was endemic of Mars, and carried over into us Earthers, as a way of explaining some of our anti-social tendencies.