Thoughts on our ruling class monoculture
This is also why nature fosters genetic diversity. Sexual reproduction is a lot of trouble compared to, say, fission or budding, or even parthenogenesis. Despite its undoubted pleasures, it s resource-expensive, requiring a search for a mate, possibly competition to mate at all, and risks like sexually transmitted diseases and childbirth, all for a paltry 50% (average) genetic pass-on. Unlike asexual reproduction, which produces a copy of what is, by definition, a successfully reproducing individual, sexual reproduction produces a genetically unique offspring who may turn out to be worse-adapted to the environment than either parent.
But on the other hand, it produces a genetically unique offspring. This means that parasites that might be well adapted to the parents may well be less adapted to the offspring. Sexual reproduction imbues a population with genetic diversity, making it a moving target for diseases, parasites, etc.
This isn t the first time I ve thought of this phenomenon in a political connection. I ve written elsewhere, in a law review article titled Is Democracy Like Sex? that electoral turnover in democracies produces a moving target for special-interest groups (the political analog of parasites) and thus helps keep them from becoming too well adapted to the society that is their host. As evolutionary biologist Thomas Ray observed, every successful system accumulates parasites, and the United States of America has been very successful indeed. I suggested that part of its success lay in electoral shifts that served keep special interests from locking in their positions entirely.
But what I (mostly) missed when writing that piece many years ago, is that electoral turnover only affects one small piece of society. While elections change out elected officials sometimes, the rest of our society the bureaucracy, academia, media, corporate leadership, what is generally known as the gentry or ruling class remains the same.
And our ruling class today is very much a monoculture.
Good point.