Do NOT try this at home!!

One of the first blog posts I ever read (no idea whose) was about how the older (Sri Lankan) generation has given us a shitty li'lcountry with a lot of shitty problems and now we, the new generation, are going to have to deal with the end result of all that crap. Now I was e-mailed this li'l experiment early this mornin which I thought might just be relevant:

What you Need:

- 1 cage

- 1 banana

- Some stairs

- A water hose

- Lots of monkeys (at least 10)

What to Do:

Set up the cage with the banana hanging inside and the stairs placed under the said banana. Next send in five of the monkeys. Now be patient (and have the hose ready). Soon one of the monkeys will move away from the group and start to climb the stairs to get to the banana. As soon as this happens spray water at all the monkeys (and thereby detering the adventurous monkey as well). In a while more, another monkey will try to go for the banana - repeat as above and douse them monkeys with water. Let a couple more of the monkeys go for the banana and repeat process. Soon enough, when a monkey tries to go for the banana, the rest of the monkeys will attack it to stop it even if you don't spray water on them cos they expect the water anyway. Now comes the interesting bit.

Take a monkey out of the cage and replace it with another (who does not know this process obviously). Now this new monkey will try to go for the banana. And the poor monkeys in there who still remember the water will attack the new dude to stop it. This will happen everytime he tries to go for the banana. Then take a second monkey out of the cage and replace it with a new one. New one will go for banana, others will attack..including the first new one who has no idea why he's attacking - he just knows he must stop this new dude cos all the other monkeys think so. Then take a third monkey out and replace him. This third one will be attacked by 2 monkeys who have no idea why they're attacking him and 2 old ones who remember the water. Then a fourth one - he will be attacked by 3 monkeys who've no idea why and one old monkey who remembers. Then replace the final one. This will be attacked by the other four (= all) monkeys - though none of them really have any idea why exactly they're trying to stop him. So there's no more need for water cos none of the monkeys will go near the banana again without being attacked by the others.

What to Think:

Why is this? Cos that's the way things were done, and that's the way things should continue to be done.

What to Question:

Now, can we really blame the old monkeys who remembered and not the new monkeys who fell in line?

However, seeing as I don't know just how intelligent monkeys generally are, I can't say how far they're capable of any independent thinking really.