Posted on 04/23/2013 8:16:54 AM PDT by jpsb
If you start with a cage containing five monkeys and inside thecage, hang a banana on a string from the top and then you place a set of stairs under the banana, before long a monkey will go to the stairs and climb toward the banana.
As soon as he touches the stairs, you spray all the other monkeyswith cold water.
After a while another monkey makes an attempt with same result... all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.
Now, put the cold water away.
Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one.
The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys will attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs he will be assaulted.
Next, remove another of the original five monkeys, replacing it with a new one.
The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment...... with enthusiasm, because he is now part of the "team".
Then, replace a third original monkey with a new one, followed by the fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.
Now, the monkeys that are beating him up have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs. Neither do they know why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.
Finally, having replaced all of the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys will have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, not one of the monkeys will try to climb the stairway for the banana.
Why, you ask? Because in their minds...that is the way it has always been!
This, my friends, is how Congress operates... and this is why, from time to time:
ALL of the monkeys need to be REPLACED AT THE SAME TIME.
Good one. Am passing it around.
Been voting against incumbents for years. Hopefully, obama has ticked off enough people, it will spread.
AW, thought you might like this one!
When I was in college a bazillion years ago, my primary focus was business/employee/employer interactions.
This was an actual study, which we had to expand to “how to stop” employees/employers from using the phrase, “we have always done it that way.”
This, my friends, is how Congress operates...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I’ve been a corporate stooge for many years. Trust me when I say - this is how Big Businesses operate as well.
I believe it!
This! Reminds me of a zoo in India where you had to pay money to squirt these monkeys in an encaged area with a hose.
The monkeys were pretty smart and always ran away whenever they saw someone coming near the hose though.
I once got lucky when I snuck up to the hose really slowly, and it was, well, funner than a barrel of monkeys!
A mother was instructing her daughter how to prepare a pot roast dinner.
The mother’s first instruction was “we start by cutting off the ends of the roast”. The daughter accepted the instruction but asked her mother, “Why do we cut off the ends of the roast”? A puzzled look came over the mother’s face as she pondered her daughter’s question. “I don’t really know why” she finally answered, “that is how my mother taught me”.
The daughter remained curious and suggested they call her grandmother and ask why. They called the grandmother only to get the answer, “I don’t really know why, that is how my mother taught me.
Not satisfied the daughter suggested they phone her great grandmother at her assisted living facility and ask her why. The nurse at the facility brought the grandmother to the phone and the daughter asked, “great grandmother, why did you teach my grandmother to cut the ends off the roast before cooking?” Without hesitation great grandmother answered, “So the roast will fit in the pot”.
lol, good one!
I'm flattered that you remembered our conversation! Thanks for the ping.
You are welcome! I enjoyed sharing ideas with you about psychology, so now when I see this topic, I can’t help but wonder if you could be interested.
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