This sounds like it is going to be a very good joke.
However, seriously, if you are the woman from Sealand who is desperate to gain Petra and
access to her incredible talent in telepathy, the answer is that there is no difference.
It is in Chapter Sixteen that she expounds her own philosophical approach to the
existence of Waknuk and the particular way that they are trying to hold up the evolution
of humanity with their strict notions of purity and their strictness in dealing with
deviations. One of the messages of the novel is the way in which all life, including
humans themselves, are evolving. Trying to stop that process from occurring is like
trying to stop a rushing river with a tiny dam. Note how she describes Waknuk
society:
"The
Old People brought down Tribulation, and were broken into fragments by it. Your father
and his kind are a part of those fragments. They have become history without being aware
of it. They are determined still that there is a final form to defend: soon they will
attain the stability they strive for, in the only form it is granted--a place among the
fossils..."
Evolution is a
fact of life, and in this novel Wyndham paints one picture of how humanity will evolve
in the future following a terrible holocaust that has broken us into "fragments." Trying
to resist such a natural and powerful process is futile, although the impact of this
process has been massive for David and his group of telepaths.
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