“Then there are the hôteliers who tonight are washing their hands with imaginary soap and water in anticipation of the golden harvests to come. It is good for the tourist business to have an American princess on show....

Ambassador Udina: The other species are scared. They've never faced anything like this before and they don't know what to do. They want us to step forward. They believe in humanity because of you. Ambassador Udina: Your ruthless pursuit of Saren and the geth, your defiance of the Council -- that's what humans are capable of! That's how we can defeat the Reapers! Ambassador Udina: The others will follow us, Shepard. They know we're their only hope. We will have a human Council with a human Chairman.

Even the mantelpiece is adorned with a totally unfunctional tasselled valance rather like an altar frontal.

The appeal to the unknown and the imaginary is the modus operandi of the modern Darwinite.