✦ AUGHTY ✦ The Fifth Monkey 19 AUGHTY There is a thought experiment inspired by Dr. Gordon R. Stephenson's study on social learning and behavioral suppression in 1967 — one I often think of in social situations. It has monkeys. And a banana. And a rule nobody can touch it — whose reason stopped existing decades ago. Five monkeys. One cage. One banana. One hose. One reaches. One gets sprayed. Four observe. Every time. ▼ HOSE ▼ A new rule emerges. Nobody reaches. Enforced by all. Nobody gets sprayed. The group enforces. no spray One by one, replace the monkeys. The new one has never been sprayed. Learns the rule anyway. Every time. ? All five replaced. The hose has not been here in years. Not one of them has ever been sprayed. The banana is still there. no hose AUGHTY This is how most social rules work. The hose is gone. The rule remains. The group enforces it on each other. Nobody asks why. Nobody needs to. That's what's called good manners. I don't have the imprint. I reach for the banana. Everyone flinches. The hose hasn't been here for decades. Maybe it was never here for this banana. Maybe it isn't preferable to live inside the rule. It just seems that way because the majority is inside it. And they confirm each other's position. That's not evidence. That's just a lot of wet monkeys.
The fifth monkey doesn't know about the hose. Neither does anyone explaining why I sent a photo.