The Stinky Cheese Man: A Modern Parable

[liberal N proud]

This is quite funny:

A few years ago the motivational book Who Moved My Cheese was required reading for management mavens. You couldn’t swing a dead rat without hitting someone who’d read it. It was the parable of how people relate to change. The parable featured two mice looking for cheese in a maze. It occurs to me that perhaps a new parable about rodents and cheese might be in order.

Imagine Iraq is a cheese. A nice, fresh, ripe, good-smelling cheese. One that would be appealing with a little wine or perhaps some fruit.

Now, put the cheese in the middle of a maze. Let’s call the maze The White House.

Finally, put a giant rat into the maze - say, one named George. Afterwards, release dozens of smaller rats into the maze. We’ll call these rats - oooo, say, congressional rats. Some are big and fat, others a little puny.

Let them nibble around the edges of the cheese for a few weeks. A bite here. A bite there. And, let the natural hierarchical order amongst rodents rule the day - the bigger the rat, the more room the other rats give him. When the cheese runs out, replace it with new bits of cheese. But always use cheese of the same age and ripeness. It’s very important not to change the environment in any way.

After a few weeks, the cheese will begin to smell. It’ll only be a slightly musty smell at first. Certainly nothing to put the rats off the cheese, just a marginally stronger aroma.

http://www.teambio.org/2006/07/the-stinky-cheese-man-a-modern-parable/

[lonestarnot]

1. You left out the plague.

[diddlysquat]

2. I had to read that book.

I thought it was ridiculous. Then one day I saw a book at the store mocking WHO MOVED MY CHEESE. It was called WHO CUT THE CHEESE. I laughed my head off.