The point of the story is a metaphor for how burocratic process can establish itself for good reasons, but if followed blindly, the process may continue beyond

The point of the story is a metaphor for how burocratic process can establish itself for good reasons, but if followed blindly, the process may continue beyond its usefulness. The point I was trying to make (poorly) is not that it is fun to torture monkeys, but instead that it can also be dangerous to stop following an established process if you don't know the reason for its existence. The lesson here is that it is important to record the reasons for establishing a process, as once it is established, people move on. If no-one knows why the process exists, they might be stuck with it lest they get badly burnt.