MMMark's Whycandoo Room: Social Consciousness    
 Social Consciousness3 comments
30 Jan 2002 @ 21:15, by Mark Smollin

This is not my creation, but I made one small edit to Andrea Kulbacki's observation:

Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water. After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result - all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him. After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth.

Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked. Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana.

Why not?

Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here.

And that my friends, is how social consciousness HAS been formed en masse!



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3 comments

30 Jan 2002 @ 23:22 by ashanti : Superb analogy.
At times, I have bristled at your posts (Mainly on the subject of Democracy). But THIS one is superb, thanks very much for posting it. Similar to the Milgram experiments, where people in white coats instructed subjects to press a button giving an electric shock to a person strapped to a chair in a room with a glass facade. The subjects were told to administer stronger and stronger electric shocks, while the strapped victim screamed louder and louder. Of course, the victim was only acting, and those weren't real electric shocks, but the subject didn't know that. I can't recall the exact finding, but it was a shocking 98% of subjects, representative of all segments of society, who unquestioningly applied increasing levels of pain to a person just because some authority figure in a white coat told them to. That's another aspect of social conditioning we need to look at - the vast majority do not question what "authority" (government, police, doctors, academics, the mainstream media) tell them. Consensus Reality. I think most of the NCN members do question, are awake (obviously!), but in the overall population, we are still a very tiny minority. But the main focus of your analogy is "peer group" pressure, perhaps even more deadly. The pack mentality which leaps on and devours an individual who dares to challenge consensus reality. I believe that, more than the criminal governments of the world, is the main reason we are in such a mess.  

31 Jan 2002 @ 05:20 by ming : Bananas
All I want to know is: Where is my banana? And why are you all wet?  

31 Jan 2002 @ 07:22 by martha : social consciousness
I believe the good news is that social consciousness is shifting. With the advent of technology and more specially the internet, the monkeys of the world will start questioning more why they can't have a banana. Just as we humans are now questioning why can't we have heaven on earth?  

Other entries in
10 Apr 2003 @ 00:14: War Stuff
26 Jan 2002 @ 03:50: Greatness & Friendship
7 Dec 2001 @ 09:52: Negative Energy
6 Dec 2001 @ 02:14: What Are We Doing Here?


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