PARASITE VS. HOST: “In evolution, host and parasite can engage in a kind of arms race. One side adapts and evolves; the other side adapts and evolves to keep up. At the end of the day, neither side is necessarily better off than the other. . . . The phenomenon helps illustrate why sexual reproduction is important: by producing genetically varied offspring, a slower-evolving organism can defend itself against a faster-evolving one.”

As I’ve suggested elsewhere, the same may be true in politics, though regarding that contest as a Red Queen’s Race would, alas, be rather optimistic.