I once read about an experiment made with monkeys - it was something like this:

Some cientists locked up 4 monkeys in a cage. In the middle of that cage was a ladder that leaded to a bunch of bananas that was on its top.

Whenever a monkey tried to climb the ladder, a water jet was shot to the other monkeys. This happened several times... but after these animals had realized what used to happen by that time, they understood they couldnt try to reach the bananas.

Whenever one of them felt tempted and started climbing the ladder, the others beated it up.

After a while, the scientists decided to substitute one monkey. The new monkey's first reaction in the cage was to climb the ladder and eat a banana, but it was automatically repressed by the others. The new monkey learned we couldn't climb the ladder, but as it was never victim of the water jet (because it was instantly beated)... it never really understood the reason for the restant animals' reaction.

Then the scientists substituted another monkey. It happened exactly the same thing that happened with the first new monkey.

Then the scientists substituted another and another.

So, by this time, we have 4 new monkeys that beat up each other whenever one of them can't resist on climbing the ladder and don't even know why they do that. It just became ritual.



This story is a good metaphore for many things. You can't just do something because it is traditional to do it or because it is a mechanical action. You have to stop and think about why you do that thing and if what you do is right...
If so, go ahead!


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