Company Policy

[Cat]

Don't know where I got this from but it reminded me of some aspects of the Army. . . . . How Company Policy begins

How Things Work In Real Life. Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. And that, my friends, is how a company policy begins.

[Vee]

HEY! What are you trying to insinuate there, CATlady? That just because we drag our knuckles when we walk that we're a buncha monkeys? :D

[Steadfast]

HEY! What are you trying to insinuate there, CATlady? That just because we drag our knuckles when we walk that we're a buncha monkeys? :D

Yeah, you tell her vrsca. I am glad we are not monkeys. We are not weak minded like the monkeys.

As a matter of fact, a Ranger has more perserverance than the average Joe. I further think vrscar that Cat was explaining how things are in her "world".

P.S. Shit, I forgot to laugh. har har har.

[Looon]

HEY! What are you trying to insinuate there, CATlady? That just because we drag our knuckles when we walk that we're a buncha monkeys? :D

Yeah, you tell her vrsca. I am glad we are not monkeys. We are not weak minded like the monkeys.

As a matter of fact, a Ranger has more perserverance than the average Joe. I further think vrscar that Cat was explaining how things are in her "world".

P.S. Shit, I forgot to laugh. har har har.

hahahahahaha

[Harris]

hey interesting.

[Steadfast]

Don't know where I got this from but it reminded me of some aspects of the Army. . . . . How Company Policy begins

How Things Work In Real Life. Start with a cage containing five monkeys. Inside the cage, hang a banana on a string and place a set of stairs under it. Before long, a monkey will go to the stairs and start to climb towards the banana. As soon as he touches the stairs, spray all of the other monkeys with cold water.

After a while, another monkey makes an attempt with the same result all the other monkeys are sprayed with cold water. Pretty soon, when another monkey tries to climb the stairs, the other monkeys will try to prevent it.

Now, put away the cold water. Remove one monkey from the cage and replace it with a new one. The new monkey sees the banana and wants to climb the stairs. To his surprise and horror, all of the other monkeys attack him.

After another attempt and attack, he knows that if he tries to climb the stairs, he will be assaulted.

Next, remove another of the original five monkeys and replace it with a new one. The newcomer goes to the stairs and is attacked. The previous newcomer takes part in the punishment with enthusiasm! Likewise, replace a third original monkey with a new one, then a fourth, then the fifth. Every time the newest monkey takes to the stairs, he is attacked.

Most of the monkeys that are beating him have no idea why they were not permitted to climb the stairs or why they are participating in the beating of the newest monkey.

After replacing all the original monkeys, none of the remaining monkeys have ever been sprayed with cold water. Nevertheless, no monkey ever again approaches the stairs to try for the banana. Why not? Because as far as they know that's the way it's always been done around here. And that, my friends, is how a company policy begins.

Ya know cat ya got me thinking and up popped an old picture in my head from a movie back maybe 10 or 12 years ago. Ya prolly saw it on re runs. It theme music was by the same Italian Conductor as the Good, The Bad and the Ugly. His name is Georgio Morodo(sp?) and the movie is Midnight Run I think. Its star was Brad ? Well the movie was about a guy trying to smuggle Hashish out of Turkey and he got caught and imprisioned. The prisoners moved in a clockwise motion around a solitary pole during the day. Tragically we were viewing the likes of a horrible foreign prison. Towards the end of the movie when all seemed hopeless this actor moved around the pole in a anticlockwise motion. All the prisoners were trying to turn him around and he inturn got violent with them and they allowed him to go opposite them. This is a direct corelation to what you were describing in your post. Yes it is true. For others anyway, but not Rangers.

[Cat]

Ok Rgr SF I understand your point, but wasn't there ever a time while you were in the Army when you said to yourself - this makes no sense or - why are we doing it this way or - it would be much easier if we did this first?


That's what the story was really about. It's an illustration about the fact that policy, in practice, sometimes doesn't make a lot of sense - Especially for those who are implementing it.

[Steadfast]

Yeah, I couldn't understand why they drafted me. I never would have joined had they not.

Actually I was always doing something that got me into trouble. I was always living dangerously in the confines of the Army. And that was before I got to Vietnam. I even spent a night in jail in zero week of Jump School and didn't get into trouble for that one.

I made E-3 three times.

[Cat]

Point taken Rgr SF but I would have thought that these realities would have been magnified within a combat arms MOS in the Army. And also during war time.

E-3 three times :? heheh I knew of few guys like that myself while I was in.

[Cat]

HEY! What are you trying to insinuate there, CATlady? That just because we drag our knuckles when we walk that we're a buncha monkeys? :D

No, of course not . . . . . . . har har har