Bzzliteyr said:
Sometimes I hear the good old "we've always done it that way".. I love to ask the question "why?" and see what answers people can provide me. Usually silences a crowd real quick.
We have a "back door" at the regiment. No one is allowed to use it, no one knows why but if anyone sees you using it you get in trouble. It is actually on the front of the building and opens up to the other regiments, saving time if you have to go to them or even to the shacks on base, but it will NOT be used. Weird.
This reminds me of a story one of my Cpls told me. It sort of goes like this:
An Experiment was conducted at some university, where they took 5 monkeys and put them in a cage with a metal floor. In this cage was a wooden staircase, and at the top of the staircase was a basket full of bananas. Now the monkeys would see the bananas, go up the stairs, and eat the bananas.
After a couple of weeks, the staircase was fitted with an electrical switch on the top step, and wired to the floor. When a monkey stood on the top step to eat the banana, the electrical circuit was closed, and the other four monkeys in the cage were electrocuted.
After about two weeks, the monkeys knew not to go eat the bananas! In fact, they stayed away from the staircase all together. The electrical power was disconnected, but the monkeys still wouldn’t go for the bananas.
Once the monkeys wouldn’t go near the staircase, the researchers removed one of the monkeys from the cage and replaced him with another one. This monkey had never been electrocuted, so it didn’t know any better. It saw the bananas at the top of the staircase and decided to go have one.
Well, that monkey didn’t make it up two steps, when the other monkeys in the cage grabbed him, through him down on the floor of the cage and beat the crap out of him! This went on for about three days. After that, the new monkey didn’t go near the stairs for fear of being beaten again!
Another of the original monkeys was replaced and again, the new monkey of the group saw the bananas, tried to climb the stairs to have one, and he was beaten by the other four! After about 4 days, this new monkey wouldn’t go near the stairs either.
Over time, this same scenario was played out until all the original monkeys were replaced with new monkeys who had never been electrocuted. And every time one of the new monkeys would see the bananas and try to climb the stairs, he would then have the crap beaten out if him. None of the monkeys had any knowledge of the electrocutions that occurred with the original monkeys, but they continued to beat the crap out of each other for trying to go up the stairs to the bananas
So, the moral of the story is, when people ask why things are done they way the are? The answer is “Because that’s just the way its F#*kin’ Done!”