It's hard to dance with the devil on your back

Making Idiots: How a Paradigm Is Born?

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…”

********

Un groupe de savants ont mit cinq singes dans une cage, avec une échelle au milieu qui donne sur des bananes déposées tout en haut.  A chaque fois qu’un singe grimpait sur l’échelle pour chercher les bananes, les savants arrosaient les autres singes restés en bas avec de l’eau glacée. Après un certain moment, chaque singe qui montait chercher des bananes se faisait frappé par les autres restés en bas, pour l’empêcher de monter et ne pas être arrosés d’eau glacée. Après un certain temps, aucun singe n’osait se rapprocher de l’échelle de peur de recevoir des coups.

Les savants ont alors décidé de remplacer un des cinq singes par un nouveau. Le premier réflexe de celui-ci était de monter l’échelle pour chercher les bananes, mais les autres singes l’ont roué de coups, et après avoir essayé plusieurs fois, il avait compris qu’il ne fallait pas grimper sur l’échelle pour ne pas recevoir de coups.

Les savants ont décidé alors de remplacer encore un singe par un nouveau. La réaction du groupe était similaire, et même le singe qui l’a précédé lui donna des coups sans même savoir pourquoi.

L’expérience a continué jusqu’à remplacer complètement tous les singes, et ces derniers continuaient toujours à taper chaque singe qui serait tenté de grimper l’échelle, sans savoir pourquoi et sans jamais avoir été arrosés.

Si on pouvait interroger les singes sur le pourquoi de ce comportement, ils auraient sûrement  répondu : «  on ne sait pas, ça a toujours été comme ça ! ». 

Photo: Animal Acting Like Human 

Quote Of The Day

"Sadness is but a wall between two gardens" 

Gibran Khalil Gibran (1883-1931)
 

Photo: Alessandro Rizzolli

If You Forget Me

I want you to know one thing.
You know how this is:
if I look at the crystal moon,
 at the red branch of the slow autumn at my window,
if I touch near the fire
the impalpable ash
or the wrinkled body of the log,
everything carries me to you,
as if everything that exists,
aromas, light, metals,
were little boats that sail
toward those isles of yours that wait for me.

Well, now,
if little by little you stop loving me
I shall stop loving you little by little.

If suddenly you forget me
do not look for me,
for I shall already have forgotten you.

If you think it long and mad,
the wind of banners
that passes through my life,
and you decide to leave me at the shore
of the heart where I have roots,
remember that on that day,
at that hour, I shall lift my arms
and my roots will set off
to seek another land.

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973)

Photo: Evgenija Bitter

Love Is Not Enough

Quote Of The Day

"Faith makes all things possible, love makes all things easy"

Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)

Photo: Bernardo Alatorre, Lady Praying. 

We're In This Together

I do believe that we can meet special people, people who can change your life.

This happens when you do not expect it. One day, an ordinary day, you come across someone who will make every day of your life a special day and you are far from realizing how important this person will be in your life.

One day you feel that nobody understands you and despite the great number of people surrounding you, you feel like you are alone in the world. Then a person comes into your life and means the whole world to you.

It is a kind of cosmic and spiritual attraction. It is not only finding someone with whom you have a lot of things in common, those special people are different. At first, it seems that everything separates you from that person: culture, opinions, tastes, distance, time … Yet their influence can be so big that they can change your existence.

This attraction is deeper, it is the connection of two souls, the melting of two spirits in one. Those people are special enough to make your inner you immerge, you discover yourself through them, like a mirror reflects your image. And if you are lucky enough, they will change you to a better person. You have found your soulmate. 

The most important is that the connection between the two souls is so strong that nothing can tear them apart, and whatever will happen, they will still together. 

I do believe that we can meet special people, people who can change your life.