Right now I am reading a book called, The Art of Non-Conformity by Chris Gullebeau. In short, it is quickly becoming one of my all time favorites...it should be required reading for life. Personally I am not reading the book for any class, or requirement, but because I am in search of meaning in my own life.
Anyway the book had an interesting section called The Five Monkeys and the Clear Alternative. The section notes an experiment by a sadistic scientist...I'll explain.
Five monkeys were thrown into a cage together. They were given enough food and water to sustain them but not really to satisfy them. Hanging from the very top of the cage was a large bushel of bananas...yum right? Conventionally, a ladder was built leading up to the bananas and naturally one by one, monkeys climbed the ladder in pursuit of the food. But when one tried to get to the treat, they would be hosed down with ice cold water. But not just the climber- all of the monkeys at the bottom of the cage would be hosed down as well.
The monkeys tried multiple times to get to the bananas at the top of the cage. And time and time again the monkeys received the punishment of their fellow monkey's boldness. So the others began to pull down any monkey that tried to climb the latter. No monkey could try to get to the bananas without the others stopping them first.
Then, one monkey in the cage was taken out of the cage and a new one was added to the bunch. The new monkey tried a few times to get to the top of the cage but unsurprisingly, the others pulled it down. Then one by one new monkeys were traded into the bunch, and after a while none of the original monkeys were in the cage. None of the monkeys in the cage had ever been hosed.
But because of learned behavior, every time the newest monkey would try to climb the ladder, they would be pulled down. None of the monkeys had ever been punished with the hose, and had no reason behind not climbing the ladder... it was just how it was.
Whats the point? Well just like the monkeys in the cage ignoring the bananas above them, the choice of an average life represents a life of normality. I wish i could say it is a conspiracy, and the book goes into much deeper detail, but its the honest truth. No sadist has thrown us in a cage. Instead its a contagious pattern of settling for what is "normal" or "good enough". Obvious to the world that surrounds us, the life of sleepwalkers (what the book calls the people who just go along) offers little risk and little reward. No one will ever fault sleepwalkers, me included. Theres just one big problem with it, for those of us who long for a life of adventure, the life of sleepwalking sucks.
Fortunately, we don't have to be caged monkeys, we are free to climb the ladder, grab the bananas, and even escape from the cage. Have you ever heard about how its easier to ask for forgiveness than permission? This is TOTALLY true, but there's even more good news: there are very few things you need to ask forgiveness or permission for.
If your stuck in a cage, its time to smash the glass around you and craw out. You don't need anyone's permission to climb the ladder, and you don't need to apologize or escaping. If the sleepwalking life is the "real world" of the unremarkably average, the clear alternative is the "living world" of adventure. Come join the living world; open to all who are willing to embrace life as the adventure it should be.
Check out that badass, non-conformig bird
(made me laugh)
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