Who’s the monkey?

Have you heard about the monkeys, ladder, banana, and ice water research? It’s where they put five monkeys in a cage with a ladder in the middle. Over the ladder hangs a banana. Logically, the monkeys will try to scale the ladder. However, when one of them aims to go for the ladder, ice water gets sprayed, and not just on the one going for the fruit, but on all of them.  And this gets repeated until the monkeys made the “beat up anyone who touches the ladder, or I will get iced” connection.

Well, the mood is set, “No Ice Water…Brrrrr”.
Then. A “No Ice Water” monkey got replaced with a new one and this time, water squirting will not be used. Just imagine, what’s going through the freshman’s head?” Frail, wet, and shivering monkeys? Yes! This means that they fear me. Finally, I am being respected.  And look, they even prepared a meal for me at my throne. The life of a King.”  This got followed by a very unpleasant dethroning.  It’s almost like you can hear him scream: “Mommy?”

The freshman gets the drift, to stay away from the ladder. Another old monkey was swapped for a new, and the law enforcers waste no time, sharing their new-found unquestioning faith with the new comer. Obviously, the freshman, who has seen the light, knows he is obligated to add his two cents. Hey, it’s all for the greater Good. With the occasional bite, scratch and slap, they truly convince the stranger that ladders with a banana hanging over them, should be left alone. Gradually, the swapping continues until every monkey in the cage is new.

At the end, we have a cage with five monkeys who are obeying and enforcing a rule, that they do not know where it comes from or why it must be in place. All they know  - “it is just the way things are."

And sadly, all of us, to some degree, are burdened by this type of mind-set and completely oblivious by it. History coached us that man’s limits are figments of his imagination. Man was not meant to fly. A 100m sprint under 10 second or a mile under 4 minutes can’t be done. Women cannot do a man’s work. A climb to the summit of Everest is impossible. The list goes on. Yet, through years of conditioning, we enabled ourselves to be shackled by lacks and limits of our world. Like, “You won’t be able to afford it," “You won’t be able to do this or that," “That’s not meant for you," etc. Most of these sources, themselves, suffer from lacks and inabilities. And it stands to reason, if they can’t neither can you. Like the monkeys, we are embracing this behavior.

“We do not deal much in facts when we are contemplating ourselves.” - Mark Twain

“It always seems impossible until it’s done. “ - Nelson Mandela

Look, I am not saying that the principles, beliefs, and whatever makes you, you, are right or wrong, but are merely suggest you validate them. I believe no one can tell you what the truth is, but simply point you towards it. Since you are the only one who can break down these illusionary barriers, you’re the only one that can make you see /understand the truth.

“When the student is ready, the master appears. “ - Buddhist Proverb 

“And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” -  Christ

“The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself; to be conquered by yourself is of all things most shameful and vile.”- Plato

The irony is that most of us try to be unique, and yet we live by the limits, and the lacks of the masses. So don’t you think it’s time we leave the monkey stuff to the monkeys? And become what we are destined to become…free.

"There are two primary choices in life: to accept conditions as they exist, or accept the responsibility for changing them." - Denis Waitley

“The object of life is not to be on the side of the majority, but to escape finding oneself in the ranks of the insane. “ -  Marcus Aurelius