A group of scientists put five monkeys in a cage, and inside it, they placed a ladder with a bunch of bananas. When one of the monkeys climbed up the ladder to get a banana, they hosed the rest with ice-cold water.

After a while when a monkey climbed on the ladder, it got beaten up by the others.

Later on, none of the monkeys climbed up the ladder to get the bananas, then the scientists replaced one of the monkeys.

The first thing the new monkey did was to climb up the ladder; the rest beat it up right away. After a few beatings, the new monkey did not climb on the ladder at all.

The same thing happened with a second new monkey. The first substitute participated gladly in the beatings. A third monkey was changed with the same results. The fourth and the last one were finally substituted.

Then the scientists had five monkeys that never had been hosed with cold water, yet, they beat up any monkey that tried to reach the bananas.

If we could ask them why they beat up anyone trying to reach the bananas, the answer would very probably be:

“I don’t know, things have always been like that…”

http://www.zonezero.com/zz/25/Articles/how-is-a-paradigm-born.html