Did my best to reproduce a story I heard a few years back:
That?s the Way We?ve Always Done it
Put 4 gorillas in a cage. Hang a bunch of bananas from a hook in the center, just out of reach. Put a stepladder in the cage.
Eventually, one gorilla will use the step ladder to reach the bananas. As soon as he gets close, blast all 4 gorillas with cold water from a fire hose. The one going for the bananas will back down and all of them will cuddle into the corner.
Sooner or later, another gorilla or perhaps the same gorilla will go for the bananas again. When it gets close, blast them all with the cold water from the fire hose again. They will start to make the connection.
Now, replace one of the original gorillas with a new gorilla who knows nothing about the fire hose. None of the original gorillas will go for the bananas anymore because they know the consequences. The new one will eventually go for the bananas. The other gorillas will beat the tar out of him before he even gets close, not wanting to get hit by the cold water.
Now replace the next original gorilla with a new one who also knows nothing of the fire hose. When this one goes for the bananas, it will likewise get the tar beat out of it by the other gorillas. Even the first replacement gorilla that has not seen the fire hose will join in on the festivities although it doesn?t know why.
Keep up the process until you have replaced all the original gorillas and now you have nothing but gorillas that have never seen the fire hose. In fact put the fire hose away- you won?t need it anymore. Now, each gorilla has at least once gotten the tar beat out of it for going for the bananas and will never go after them again. No gorilla will ever so much as think about the bananas and no gorilla will even know why. They?ll just know that ?that?s the way we?ve always done it?.
Ed