I heard a history once about an
experiment carried out with monkeys to demonstrate the power of social habits over the individuals.
In a closed cage they put a group of monkeys and at the bananas were located. Every time a monkey tried to reach the bananas, somebody from outside operated a pressure hose tormenting all the monkeys with a nasty bath. During a time they repeated the action until the monkeys understood that it was useless to try to reach the bananas since a punishment always took place.
In time to time, one of the monkeys was substituted with a new one that had not participated in the
experiment. When the new tenant, ignoring the
situation, was about to reach the bananas, the other monkeys attacked him to avoid the punishment by the water hose.
For long time the experiment continued, always substituting one of the initial monkeys for a new one. The reaction continued repeating equally. To none of the new ones was possible to reach the prize, since the others impeded it. After a while, there was no longer in the cage none of the monkeys that initially began the experiment. Neither the intents were punished from the outside with the pressure rain. However, the reaction of the community continued unalterable. Already none knew why it was not possible to reach the bananas in the high, but when the new ones made the intent, the others attacked him automatically. For the first time it was possible to maintain a group of monkeys next to bananas and no one was about to eat them.
The conclusions for us humans are obvious. How many social habits and customs do we maintain in our societies for the simple fact that 'it always has been made this way’? To how many people 'do we punish' for been different, for trying to reach something that we consider forbidden? We have to accept that many of our customs are simply that, but they lack a human logic that allows us an individual and social development. However, it is not my intention to meditate on what is derived of this history, but in the possible ways to solve the situation.
Supposing a rational thought in the monkeys of the experiment, could we wonder what had thought that recently arrived one, ignorant of the customs, seeing that his intent to reach that 'humanly' (?) natural and desirable (the bananas), was received with the aggression and rejection of their partners. Certainly that behavior was not logical, coherent. The society rejected him, but he was convinced of having a truth that the others were not able to see. How to convince them, how to change that behavior?
Arrived here, we have to suppose that situation is reversible in two ways. Maybe could be convince the others that it was a nonsense, that the socially acceptable conduct didn't agree with the 'human nature' and therefore it should be changed. Maybe could be possible to get several followers of our own and fight together against the others to change the establishment. Obviously, only the first one can be considered correct, because supposing that the violent option succeed, at the end we would be able to impose our point of view over the rest that now would become the segregated part of the society. In any way, we will always find a resistance in the group to change the establishment. At the end they would be always those that would still reject the new customs.
How many times do we propose changes for which our societies are not still prepared? How many times we have succumbed to the temptation of imposing our approaches in a violent way, thinking that our truth is entitled over the others? Why do we frequently offer our support to organizations, governments, institutions that under the pretended idea of representing most, in fact they create segregation mechanisms and discriminations for those that don't act or don’t think like they expect? We should understand that the society transforms due to an evolution process and that the violent changes, the imposition by the force, aate new injustices, new displaced ones. Let us consult the history to realize what they have driven at short term all the revolutions and how long they have taken the societies in assimilating the changes and the new forms of thinking that they propose. With all this present, let us continue fighting in a very ‘human way’ for the prize to be able 'to reach the bananas'.