The Monkey Syndrome

[HUGGY]

Start with a cage containing five monkeys.

Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string from the ceiling.

Place a set of stairs under the banana.

Before long a monkey will go up the stairs and reach for the banana.

As soon as he touches the stairs, all the other monkeys are sprayed with icy cold water which is quite unpleasant for monkeys.

When a second monkey make an attempt to reach the banana, again all the other monkeys are sprayed with icy cold water. A third monkey going for the stairs is prevented from doing so by the others.

From that point on no monkey dares attempt to reach the banana.

The cold water is put away and one monkey is removed from the cage and replaced with a new one.

The new monkey sees the banana and attempts to climb the stairs. To his shock, all of the other monkeys beat the crap out of him. After a second attempt followed by the same punishment, he no longer attempts to climb the stairs.

A second of the original monkeys is removed and replaced with a new one. The newscomer goes for the stairs and is atttacked with the previous newcomer enthusiastically taking part in the discilinary action.

One by one replace the third, fourth, and fifth monkeys in the same manner until
there are no monkeys left in the cage who have ever been doused with icy cold water. But any newcomer who attempts to climb the stairs to reach the banana will be attacked by all the others.

Why? Because in their minds it has always been that way.

MORAL OF STORY:

Every now and then, most or all of the monkeys should be replaced at the same time.

Great post!. This example explains why I come to this MB and why I am so hard on some of the members of my party. The only way to fight the fear mentality is to fight back and enlist others to fight back with you so eventually the banana is in your grasp.

 

[Foxfyre]

Oh man, I have to disagree on that. The closer the government, the heavier the corruption, in my experience. The favors dispensed to the people one grew up with seem to be the costliest.

But once the people again pay more attention to state government because that's where the lion's share of their tax dollars are going, I think history will show that they will demand that a lot of the corruption be cleaned up. You see it has not always been this way. It's just sometimes the monkeys think it has because they've never experienced anything else.

Again, I have to heartily disagree. Once all services and money are directed to State or even more horrors, county and city authorities, the corruption gets much thicker and ingrained and violent. In my very state, the highway patrol has feuds with tow truck drivers that stem from family relations and folks get their windows shot out.

Haven't seen a whole lot of shots fired over federal contracting scams. Just sayin'.

But don't you see that you are participating in the monkey group think here? Because you believe state government is more corrupt than federal government, you are convinced that it has always been that way or it is that way everywhere.

I on the other hand have lived in four states. Three had excellent state governments; one has had a pretty corrupt state government. Informed by experience alone, I am as convinced that eliminating federal corruption would not of necessity make state government more corrupt.

Ditto for those who are translating this to a specific political party or person or religion or anything like that. Most have zero empirical evidence to inform them, but nevertheless hold tenaciously to the group opinion.

 

[peach174]

I don't see how that story has anything to do with government. The whole thing sounds more like the development of religion. Once upon a time someone got sick eating pig, so now no one should eat pig.
(Not meant to be a knock on any particular religion, just an example.)

I see now why you have a problem with religion, if you don't get how the story relates to government.

It relates to both, in a way, but religion more than government. If I have a problem with religion, it's because of the people involved. I'd be more concerned, if you said I had a problem with God.

Yes, I agree with you on the people, most do not really study the Bible and really read it and the history of it. Quite a few people just listen to their preachers and bible study classes but don't really read and study the Bible for themselves.

 

[Foxfyre]

I see now why you have a problem with religion, if you don't get how the story relates to government.

It relates to both, in a way, but religion more than government. If I have a problem with religion, it's because of the people involved. I'd be more concerned, if you said I had a problem with God.

Yes, I agree with you on the people, most do not really study the Bible and really read it and the history of it. Quite a few people just listen to their preachers and bible study classes but don't really read and study the Bible for themselves.

True. And too many don't understand that comprehensive Bible study involves much more than just reading the words though at least those who read the words have a better grasp of the content than those who have just been told what the Bible says.

Monkey group think can involve the religious of all disciplines as well as politics and socioeconomic beliefs and the anti-religious.

 

[Mr.Fitnah]

My favorite monkey experiment was the professor who attempted to prove or disprove the old "if a million monkeys typed for a million years, one of them would recreate Shakespeare"

.

The internet has disproved that theory

 

[Iridescence]

*lola*

 

[rightwinger]

So lets take an imaginary scenario with how rightwingers imagine monkeys would respond and claim it is some profound psychological indicator of how politicians act.

No wonder republicans stink at science

 

[007]

So lets take an imaginary scenario with how rightwingers imagine monkeys would respond and claim it is some profound psychological indicator of how politicians act.

No wonder republicans stink at science

No wonder liberals like you are so stupid. You can't even grasp the simplest of concepts.

 

[rightwinger]

So lets take an imaginary scenario with how rightwingers imagine monkeys would respond and claim it is some profound psychological indicator of how politicians act.

No wonder republicans stink at science

No wonder liberals like you are so stupid. You can't even grasp the simplest of concepts.

Simplistic concept is a correct depiction

Monkeys dont act like that and neither do humans

 

[Iridescence]

Perhaps the whole issue is some just lack vision.

 

[Procrustes Stretched]

If you start with a Congress containing thirteen Tea Partiers, and inside the Congress tape a copy of the US Constitution to the front of the dais behind which the Speaker of the House sits, and then you place second copy of the US Constitution at the foot of the podium from where they speak, before long the Tea Partiers will go before the media and demand President Obama stop trampling on the Constitution.

As soon as they attempt to touch the copy of the Constitution that is...

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needs some work. we'll tackle it later