Control, dispossession, violence, and tyranny are not “defensive”: they are part of an organized, ongoing aggression.

... Churches, easily attained to Saintſhip, which those of lower Rank, tho' perhaps much better and holier Persons, not having wherewithal to build them, could not do, but lived and died, without leaving the least Odour of Sanctity behind them.

This applies to analogous structures such as hypergroups, hyperfields, and hypermodules, and permits us to transfer the general theory from universal algebra.

Each turned his face with a ghastly pang.