In Life’s solution, Simon Conway Morris devotes an entire five-page, double-column index to convergence: Two or more species evolving the same complex, multi-part trait without being related.
Seemingly, it works that way in politics too, if we heed journalist Rich Galen’s advice:
There is a reason that just about every airliner looks like every other airliner. Some are larger, some smaller; some have two engines, some four, but they generally look alike.There is a reason for that. There is a design solution that fits commercial airliners. They take off, they go where the pilot aims them, they land, and they can carry enough passengers to make money.
Same with political campaigns. Every cycle candidates say, “We’re going to run a different type of campaign.” They all look pretty much alike because there is an engineering design solution for political campaigns.
Things change. On-line fundraising instead of using the USPS was new. So were digital avionics instead of analog instruments. But those things are updates, not fundamental changes. – “Design solution,” (Townhall, 06/10/2011)
Sounds like evolution (as it really happens) . .. Well, it seems one American politician ignored this pattern, and
… ran afoul of the rule that campaigns look like campaigns look, because there’s a design solution that works.
… campaign was like an airliner with no wings, no engines, and no landing gear. It was a different kind of airliner.
But, it couldn’t get off the ground.
Rich Galen might enjoy Stephen Meyer’s Signature in the Cell and The Nature of Nature .