# Political philosophies *The Urth list — 3 messages, 3 voices, 02 Aug 2010* > Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright > in each message remains with the person who wrote it. > Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original > archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than > retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact. --- ### Lee Berman *02 Aug 2010, 16:07* > Ryan Dunn- However, the idea of a kingdom living on through successors by way of corpse > eating is pretty cool, and maybe it was the seed of the idea for Wolfe when he > constructed it in his world. I think somewhere it is contrasted that the Ascians hope to eventually copy one individual over and over in the millions in their populatce. The Commonwealth hopes to eventually capture the minds of all members of its populace within one mind (The Autarch's). Is one of these clearly better than the other? I'll note that Severian's musings on the mountain and in regard to the green man suggest a sympathy with vegetarianism. Also on the mountain is the suggestion that the ideal society is one in which all people will treat each other justly if they know they are descended from the same two ancestors. On first readings, this seemed like oddly undisguised racism and xenophobia. But I now take this passage Biblically, in view of Adam and Eve and mating with demons and fallen angels and nephilim and lamia etc. Perhaps Wolfe is suggesting we would all treat each other with respect if we were all fully human (i.e. without evil alien corruption in our genes). --- ### Lane Haygood *02 Aug 2010, 16:18 · in reply to Lee Berman* > Also on the mountain is the suggestion that the ideal society is one in which all people will > treat each other justly if they know they are descended from the same two ancestors. On first > readings, this seemed like oddly undisguised racism and xenophobia. I got the opposite impression, that racism and xenophobia are senseless, given the assumption that we are all children of Adam and Eve, and therefore that we owe filial respect and duty to all regardless of clan, nation or ethnicity. --- ### Gerry Quinn *02 Aug 2010, 16:23 · in reply to Lee Berman* > From: "Lee Berman" > Also on the mountain is the suggestion that the ideal society is one in > which all people will > treat each other justly if they know they are descended from the same two > ancestors. On first > readings, this seemed like oddly undisguised racism and xenophobia. It seems more like speciesism. - Gerry Quinn ---