Bartertown, which is corrupt, secular, based on commerce, and without dreams versus Crack in the Earth, which is innocent and immersed in myth. Ape society versus human animals. A necessary dictatorship governs the town. A thief and liar governs the pirate ship. They have a childlike ignorance of the truth of their history.
Humanity is lost at sea.
An orderly world. What is the essential illusion. As noted, they believe they were created in God's image. They perceive the world through their belief system. One illusion can be found in the fact that a spy for the mutants convinces the human hero that hers is the good society.