Monkey Law

I read this little gem on a recent trip down the social media wormhole and while I have no idea whose wonderfully inventive mind it originally percolated out of, I found it provoking enough to share it here. There's no particular issue or concern that stirred me to associate with the theme, just an overwhelming sense of Deja Vu, like I've been a part of a tribe that toed the line on something for no other reason than that's what was always done. I really enjoyed the mental cattle prod it provided, pushing me down the chute toward independent analysis, lest I fall back into the cue like some lemming charging toward the cliff.

By providing this reminder, I'm in no way, shape, or form looking to incite a social uprising against established practices, legal mainstays, or moral obligations. I'm simply implying that we take a step back to examine the things we have instinctively veered toward without consciously deciding the course is the best action. As an athlete and coach for most of my life, I'm astutely aware that muscle memory is a powerful tool in the skill set for success, but when our those habits include behavioural automation that might require a change of tactics as this crazy world around us changes, it might be prudent to take a wider scope of the situation.

A little browse around the Interwebs and I found a reference to a published behavioural experiment by Gordon R Stephenson that dealt with Rhesus monkeys and learned responses. Stephenson, G. R. (1967). Cultural acquisition of a specific learned response among rhesus monkeys. In: Starek, D., Schneider, R., and Kuhn, H. J. (eds.), Progress in Primatology, Stuttgart: Fischer, pp. 279-288. The reference to the story below is infamously used to debate about following the established norms without knowing why,

In the end, after reading the parable below, you might think, "Stevie, you're full of shite!", and I want you to know that I'm perfectly fine with that assessment, PROVIDED that you thought for a couple or three minutes about WHY you feel that way.

Hey! We could do it the way we used to so many years ago ... we could have an argument! 

You might remember those times, don't you? When we could actively discuss polar opposite views with point - counter point animated discussions and no one felt the need to run to the Cyber-verse of social media to garner support to sooth their anxieties because they were offended by an oppositional stance. 

Ahhhh, but that's a topic for another day.
Enjoy the cattle prod!

A group of researchers locked 5 monkeys in a cage. They put a ladder in the middle and then a banana on top.

When one monkey climbed the ladder to get the banana, the researchers threw a bucket of water into the necks on the other four monkeys. Every time a monkey tried to climb the ladder, the others were poured in cold water.

The monkeys soon learned that anyone who dares to climb the ladder must be hampered and beaten down, because if not, a cold shower will come from the sky. It didn't take long for any monkeys to try climbing the ladder.

Afterwards, scientists replaced one monkey with a new one. Of course, the new monkey started immediately on the ladder, but the other monkeys knocked him down, even though they didn’t even get a cold shower. The new monkey of course did not understand why he was getting beaten, but after a few occasions he learned that we do not go up the ladder.

Then they replaced another monkey and the same thing happened. He started on the ladder and got admonished immediately. What is strange is that the previous new monkey also participated in the beating, although he didn't know why, because he never got water in his neck.

The same story was repeated with the third, fourth and finally fifth monkey. Now there are none left from the original 5.

None of them knows why you can't climb that ladder. None understands why you can't go for a banana, and yet they won't climb up for it.

Why?

If we asked them and they could talk, they would probably answer, "I don't know. That's just how it works around here, because it's always been like that, and that's how it should be done."

We may be asking ourselves the question ... Why do we keep doing what we usually do, when there are other ways, other solutions. In what direction do we progress, if we always follow the old, broken path? 

Who said it was good this way? 

Who made the decision? 

Is there another world outside our little world that could be better or prettier? 

We'll never know. 

Why? 

Because we dare not ask why we can’t climb the ladder for that tempting banana.

We just sit under the ladder and for no real reason attack anyone who dares to question “the law.”

And we're still sitting under the ladder.

We're just sitting there, under a ladder.