Little-Acorn
12-22-2010, 01:04 PM
Abso put the following on another forum on this board:
Policies and Procedures
In this experiment they put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.
Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.
Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.
Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.
All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.
A second original monkey is removed and replaced.
The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.
This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it.
However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced, eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder.
All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.
AND THAT'S HOW VERY MANY COMPANY POLICIES & PROCEDURES GET ESTABLISHED.
It's not clear if Abso wrote it himself, though he gives no credit to anyone else in the thread.
But it's a strikingly apt parable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Modern "Palestinian refugees" came into existence as such, when Israel's neighbors attacked her in the late 1940s, one day after Israel declared independence. A lot of people in the new state who didn't support it, left their homes though neither Israel nor the warmaking countries were attacking them. They wound up in refugee camps, and were genuine refugees. This happened again some years later, and yet again as Israel's neighbors kept forming up huge armies around her borders and screaming they were going to annihiliate the tiny state. More and more refugees resulted with each succeeding war, but were refused asylum and entry by the countries that kept making war on Israel.
Then the UN, under heavy pressure from those surrounding countries, changed the law on refugees. Not only were the people who fled the wars called refugees, but now their descendants could be called "refugees" too.
Fast forward to 2010. Israel's neighbors still refuse to take in the people in the refugee areas and their descendants. Most of the original refugees have passed away from old age or ongoing attacks against Israel, and many younger people have been born in those refugee areas. Though those younger ones have lived in those areas all their lives, and have never fled from anything nor ever had any other home elsewhere, they are strangely referred to as "refugees" anyway, and given false "refugee status" by the UN.
To compare to abso's parable above, most of the present occupants of those areas have never been involved in any of the wars against Israel, have never been attacked by Israel. Yet they continue to hate Israel, and attack people in that state with bombs, rockets etc., or voluntarily harbor others who keep attacking, and so bring down Israel's defensive responses on their homes. They are even referred to as "refugees", though most of them are not refugees at all by any real definition.
Most of the original "monkeys" (to use abso's comparison) are gone. The new "monkeys" have never been sprayed with ice water, but they will cheerfully beat up any "monkeys" who support Israel or call themselves Israelis, while having no idea why they are doing it.
Thanks for such an apt parable, abso.
Policies and Procedures
In this experiment they put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.
Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder, all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.
Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.
Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder.
One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious, but, undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.
All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.
A second original monkey is removed and replaced.
The newcomer again attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him.
This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it.
However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.
One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced, eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder.
All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.
AND THAT'S HOW VERY MANY COMPANY POLICIES & PROCEDURES GET ESTABLISHED.
It's not clear if Abso wrote it himself, though he gives no credit to anyone else in the thread.
But it's a strikingly apt parable to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Modern "Palestinian refugees" came into existence as such, when Israel's neighbors attacked her in the late 1940s, one day after Israel declared independence. A lot of people in the new state who didn't support it, left their homes though neither Israel nor the warmaking countries were attacking them. They wound up in refugee camps, and were genuine refugees. This happened again some years later, and yet again as Israel's neighbors kept forming up huge armies around her borders and screaming they were going to annihiliate the tiny state. More and more refugees resulted with each succeeding war, but were refused asylum and entry by the countries that kept making war on Israel.
Then the UN, under heavy pressure from those surrounding countries, changed the law on refugees. Not only were the people who fled the wars called refugees, but now their descendants could be called "refugees" too.
Fast forward to 2010. Israel's neighbors still refuse to take in the people in the refugee areas and their descendants. Most of the original refugees have passed away from old age or ongoing attacks against Israel, and many younger people have been born in those refugee areas. Though those younger ones have lived in those areas all their lives, and have never fled from anything nor ever had any other home elsewhere, they are strangely referred to as "refugees" anyway, and given false "refugee status" by the UN.
To compare to abso's parable above, most of the present occupants of those areas have never been involved in any of the wars against Israel, have never been attacked by Israel. Yet they continue to hate Israel, and attack people in that state with bombs, rockets etc., or voluntarily harbor others who keep attacking, and so bring down Israel's defensive responses on their homes. They are even referred to as "refugees", though most of them are not refugees at all by any real definition.
Most of the original "monkeys" (to use abso's comparison) are gone. The new "monkeys" have never been sprayed with ice water, but they will cheerfully beat up any "monkeys" who support Israel or call themselves Israelis, while having no idea why they are doing it.
Thanks for such an apt parable, abso.