POLITICS - ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS

[Paladin]

I meet Dave Grossman in October 2002 at the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators regional meeting in Indianapolis. I apologize for the length but though it would be a good read for all.
PALADIN
A Semi-Retired Sheepdog.


ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS


By LTC(RET) Dave Grossman, RANGER,
Ph.D., author of "On Killing."

Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always, even death itself.

"Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another.


Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.

Thus there is a paradox, and we must grasp both ends of the situation: We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.

I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me, it is like the pretty, blue robin's egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell.


Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell. And, someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.

"Then there are the wolves,", "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial.

"Then there are sheepdogs," he went on, "and I'm a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf."

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen, a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath, a wolf.

But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? What do you have then? A sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero's path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed

Let me expand on this old soldier's excellent model of the sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. We know that the sheep live in denial. That is what makes them sheep. They do not want to believe that there is evil in the world. They can accept the fact that fires can happen, which is why they want fire extinguishers, fire sprinklers, fire alarms and fire exits throughout their kids' schools.

But many of them are outraged at the idea of putting an armed police officer in their kid's school. Our children are thousands of times more likely to be killed or seriously injured by school violence than fire, but the sheep's only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their child is just too hard, and so they chose the path of denial.

The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The difference, though, is that the sheepdog must not, can not and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheep dog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed. The world cannot work any other way, at least not in a representative democracy or a republic such as ours.

Still, the sheepdog disturbs the sheep. He is a constant reminder that there are wolves in the land. They would prefer that he didn't tell them where to go, or give them traffic tickets, or stand at the ready in our airports, in camouflage fatigues, holding an M-16. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa."; Until the wolf shows up. Then the entire flock tries desperately to hide behind one lonely sheepdog.


The students, the victims, at Columbine High School were big, tough high school students, and under ordinary circumstances they would not have had the time of day for a police officer. They were not bad kids; they just had nothing to say to a cop. When the school was under attack, however, and SWAT teams were clearing the rooms and hallways, the officers had to physically peel those clinging, sobbing kids off of them. This is how the little lambs feel about their sheepdog when the wolf is at the door.

Look at what happened after September 11, 2001 when the wolf pounded hard on the door. Remember how America, more than ever before, felt differently about their law enforcement officers and military personnel? Remember how many times you heard the word hero?

Understand that there is nothing morally superior about being a sheepdog; it is just what you choose to be. Also understand that a sheepdog is a funny critter: He is always sniffing around out on the perimeter, checking the breeze, barking at things that go bump in the night, and yearning for a righteous battle. That is, the young sheepdogs yearn for a righteous battle. The old sheepdogs are a little older and wiser, but they move to the sound of the guns when needed, right along with the young ones.

Here is how the sheep and the sheepdog think differently. The sheep pretend the wolf will never come, but the sheepdog lives for that day. After the attacks on September 11, 2001, most of the sheep, that is, most citizens in America said, "Thank God I wasn't on one of those planes." The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "Dear God, I wish I could have been on one of those planes. Maybe I could have made a difference." When you are truly transformed into a warrior and have truly invested yourself into warrior-hood, you want to be there. You want to be able to make a difference.

There is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, but he does have one real advantage. Only one. And that is that he is able to survive and thrive in an environment that destroys 98 percent of the population.


There was research conducted a few years ago with individuals convicted of violent crimes. These cons were in prison for serious, predatory crimes of violence: assaults, murders and killing law enforcement officers. The vast majority said that they specifically targeted victims by body language: Slumped walk, passive behavior and lack of awareness. They chose their victims like big cats do in Africa, when they select one out of the herd that is least able to protect itself.

Some people may be destined to be sheep and others might be genetically primed to be wolves or sheepdogs. But I believe that most people can choose which one they want to be, and I'm proud to say that more and more Americans are choosing to become sheepdogs.

Seven months after the attack on September 11, 2001, Todd Beamer was honored in his hometown of Cranbury, New Jersey. Todd, as you recall, was the man on Flight 93 over Pennsylvania who called on his cell phone to alert an operator from United Airlines about the hijacking. When he learned of the other three passenger planes that had been used as weapons, Todd dropped his phone and uttered the words, "Let's roll," which authorities believe was a signal to the other passengers to confront the terrorist hijackers. In one hour, a transformation occurred among the passengers - athletes, business people and parents. -- from sheep to sheepdogs and together they fought the wolves, ultimately saving an unknown number of lives on the ground.

There is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men. - Edmund Burke

Here is the point I like to emphasize, especially to the thousands of police officers and soldiers I speak to each year. In nature the sheep, real sheep, are born as sheep. Sheepdogs are born that way, and so are wolves. They didn't have a choice. But you are not a critter. As a human being, you can be whatever you want to be. It is a conscious, moral decision.

If you want to be a sheep, then you can be a sheep and that is okay, but you must understand the price you pay. When the wolf comes, you and your loved ones are going to die if there is not a sheepdog there to protect you. If you want to be a wolf, you can be one, but the sheepdogs are going to hunt you down and you will never have rest, safety, trust or love. But if you want to be a sheepdog and walk the warrior's path, then you must make a conscious and moral decision every day to dedicate, equip and prepare yourself to thrive in that toxic, corrosive moment when the wolf comes knocking at the door.

For example, many officers carry their weapons in church. They are well concealed in ankle holsters, shoulder holsters or inside-the-belt holsters tucked into the small of their backs. Anytime you go to some form of religious service, there is a very good chance that a police officer in your congregation is carrying. You will never know if there is such an individual in your place of worship, until the wolf appears to massacre you and your loved ones.


In Texas, one officer asked his friend if he carried his weapon in church. The other cop replied, "I will never be caught without my gun in church." I asked why he felt so strongly about this, and he told me about a cop he knew who was at a church massacre in Ft. Worth, Texas in 1999. In that incident, a mentally deranged individual came into the church and opened fire, gunning down fourteen people. He said that officer believed he could have saved every life that day if he had been carrying his gun. His own son was shot, and all he could do was throw himself on the boy's body and wait to die. That cop looked me in the eye and said, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"

Some individuals would be horrified if they knew this police officer was carrying a weapon in church. They might call him paranoid and would probably scorn him. Yet these same individuals would be enraged and would call for "heads to roll" if they found out that the airbags in their cars were defective, or that the fire extinguisher and fire sprinklers in their kids' school did not work. They can accept the fact that fires and traffic accidents can happen and that there must be safeguards against them.

Their only response to the wolf, though, is denial, and all too often their response to the sheepdog is scorn and disdain. But the sheepdog quietly asks himself, "Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones were attacked and killed, and you had to stand there helplessly because you were unprepared for that day?"

It is denial that turns people into sheep. Sheep are psychologically destroyed by combat because their only defense is denial, which is counterproductive and destructive, resulting in fear, helplessness and horror when the wolf shows up.

Denial kills you twice. It kills you once, at your moment of truth when you are not physically prepared: you didn't bring your gun, you didn't train. Your only defense was wishful thinking. Hope is not a strategy. Denial kills you a second time because even if you do physically survive, you are psychologically shattered by your fear, helplessness and horror at your moment of truth.


Gavin de Becker puts it like this: "...denial can be seductive, but it has an insidious side effect. For all the peace of mind deniers think they get by saying it isn't so, the fall they take when faced with new violence is all the more unsettling."

Denial is a save-now-pay-later scheme, a contract written entirely in small print, for in the long run, the denying person knows the truth on some level. And so the warrior must strive to confront denial in all aspects of his life, and prepare himself for the day when evil comes.

If you are warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and you step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. No one can be "on" 24/7, for a lifetime. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say this to yourself..."Baa."

This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum. On one end is an abject, head-in-the-sand-sheep and on the other end is the ultimate warrior. Few people exist completely on one end or the other.

Most of us live somewhere in between. Since 9-11 almost everyone in America took a step up that continuum, away from denial. The sheep took a few steps toward accepting and appreciating their warriors, and the warriors started taking their job more seriously. The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheep-hood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.

"If It Weren't For The United States Military", "There Would Be NO United States of America"

[Hobie]

This was posted on the "old" forum. A good read with a point.

[AJMD429]

O-Baa-ma will protect us!

Seriously, a good essay. One of our big problems is the sheep don't understand the sheepdogs.

[O.S.O.K.]

There is a problem with the story.

There are only sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.

It's missing people like us.

Like most here, I am a bear. I eat berries and vegitation and occasionally carrion and can kill to sustain myself but don't have to.

The wolves don't like me very much either and don't mess with me because they can tell the difference between me and the sheep.

The sheep like me because they think I'm a sheep too. But they are wrong.

The sheepdogs aren't quite sure about the bears - they mostly like the bears but some sheepdogs don't like the bears because they think only the sheepdogs should have fangs.

My fangs are actually much more potent and I am more skilled with thier use than most sheepdogs - not all, but most.

Bears are fine without the sheepdogs and resent being grouped with the sheep when that happens...

The story is missing the bears.

[Comal Forge]

There is a problem with the story.

There are only sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.

It's missing people like us.

Like most here, I am a bear. I eat berries and vegitation and occasionally carrion and can kill to sustain myself but don't have to.

The wolves don't like me very much either and don't mess with me because they can tell the difference between me and the sheep.

The sheep like me because they think I'm a sheep too. But they are wrong.

The sheepdogs aren't quite sure about the bears - they mostly like the bears but some sheepdogs don't like the bears because they think only the sheepdogs should have fangs.

My fangs are actually much more potent and I am more skilled with thier use than most sheepdogs - not all, but most.

Bears are fine without the sheepdogs and resent being grouped with the sheep when that happens...

The story is missing the bears.

You are 100%, absolutely, unequivocally, indisputably correct - a perfect description.

[AJMD429]

Bears are fine without the sheepdogs and resent being grouped with the sheep when that happens...
The story is missing the bears.

Lots of bears on this site, I suspect. I like bears and guess I am one. I likewise bristle a bit at the implication that only "official" types can be sheepdogs; but when the author wrote "those authorized to carry a weapon" I assumed it meant any CCW individual.

I guess maybe some of the sheepdogs don't understand the bears, either...

[bunklocoempire]

I'm a man with inalienable rights. Occasionally I poop in the woods.



Bunkloco

[C. Cash]

Very good OSOK! And you never know who's who until the stuff actually hits the fan......

[mescalero1]

Have seen the necessity of that myself a time or two

[SmokeEater2]

I like the bear analogy.

[Ysabel Kid]

If I was a bit more computer savvy I'd make a picture of Obama preaching to 1,000's of sheep. In effect, these are his constituents...

[Aries]

It's truly amazing just how many wayward sheep there are out there and how easily they follow.
In other news, O.J. finally found GUILTY, 13 years to the day.
Would anyone like to play a round of golf? Johnny?! Anyone?! The heir to the O'Henry candy bar fortune?! Jackie Chiles?! Anyone before I'm sent up the river?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77qAAk_9PHA

[O.S.O.K.]

It is quite amazing to me just how uninformed and clueless most people (sheeple) are. It's truely amazing and disturbing and the worst thing is.... they can vote.

[DixieBoy]

O.S.O.K. - Excellent point, about the bears! I read Sixguns' thread before reading this one, and can't help but see a (disturbing) connection.

If we are largely a group of bears (and I think that O.S.O.K. is dead-on correct in his description) then, are the idiotic jerks who vandalized Sixguns' luggage, and treated him the way a bully (wolf) would treat a victim (sheep) to be considered "sheepdogs" ?

I've got a big problem with alot of the new variety of sheepdogs.

In Sixguns' thread the notion of rebelling against these blatant abuses of citizens is discussed. Most seem to think that, collectively, this society is past the point of resistance, due to the 'fat-dumb-and happy' syndrome.

I wonder. I think that what really has been going on is that the overwhelming majority of us (bears) are incredibly tolerant and patient with the stupidity of both the sheep herds, and much of what has happened to the mentality/morality of many (not all) of the sheepdogs. The idea of taking the country back is still a long way off for most of us, given that this would certainly be a violent and long process.

I've reached the point where I would welcome a major and drastic change, with bears in the lead. I just think that we haven't had our 'fur' ruffled sufficiently......yet.

That time might be coming sooner than we think. - DixieBoy

[O.S.O.K.]

I agree.

I am near ready to cast my coin in the hat.

And I've long believed that we will not see any action until a threashold of "uncomfortableness" is reached.

Unfortunately, those wishing to gain control over us in this country understand this and are using incrementalism as a tool to "boil the frog". I speak of George Sorros, Michael Bloomberg, Nancy Pelosi, John Daily, Harry Reid, etc., etc., etc..

I am one that believes that we must act before things get to the point that we can't communicate and coordinate and while we have the tools to do the job.

I just pray that McCain gets elected and all of this is put off or elminated as a necessity.

I do not lust or yearn for revolution - it will be horrible and I may lose my life or more if it comes to pass. It is to be avoided at high cost - but not at all cost.

[DixieBoy]

O.S.O.K. - Again, you a spot-on right. Incrementalism is the tool of choice for the enemies of freedom. It's obvious that you've thought about this. When I was in grad school I considered writing a paper about civilian resistance, in the event of a President Gore-sponsored order for gun confiscation.

I ended scrubbing the paper, but I did a number of survey designs and models. Here's what I came up with: While the great majority of guys on the forums will "talk tough" about this issue (that's easy, right?) I think that the most realistic estimate of those willing to resist would be one percent ( 1.0 %) of the gun owning population. This could have been a high estimate, but I believe that the number would slowly increase IF (this is a biggie) there were successes on the part of us good guys.

Let's face it, no one wants to be Randy Weaver. Especially, all by themselves. The press could be counted on to paint the honest and constitutionally sacred duty to hold our gov't. in check as the workings of a bunch of dangerous wackjobs.

Still, ruffle the bear's fur enough, and he will swat you. It is my prayer that the bears here and elsewhere maintain the spirit and the tools to swat the fools when the time comes. Unfortunately, I really do believe that it is a case of When, not If.

By the way, where out in Texas are you O.S.O.K. ? I've been seriously thinking about leaving Florida and, if I do, I want to find a place where a 2nd Amendment friendly American History professor could teach in a community college. I eat up Texas history lately, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Caught up in the Comanche and Kiowa wars for the last year or so. You guys have a fascinating state. Might be the place for me. I'd sure as heck have shooting buddies out there; don't think I'd have any worries about that.

I'll check back in tonight. - DixieBoy

[L8agin]

Like both analogies-thanks
L8

[O.S.O.K.]

Dixieboy: I would suggest looking at the CC in Bryan/College Station near Texas A&M - forget the name of it but its a good one. Many of the A&M kids take classes there as they are closely affiliated with A&M. Very conservative universities - in a very conservative area in a very conservative state! I's also pretty in that area and not too humid - though it can be at times...

I live SE of Austin - but I don't recommend Austin for you - too liberal, though they are surrounded by conservatives

[mescalero1]

I remember a saturday night in downtown Austin with a lifelong friend of mine, after a while and seeing all the goings on; I turned to my friend Corda and said " we are in Texas, right?"
He replied " we are in Austin, and the legislature is unwilling to impose the same restrictions on themselves as they are the rest of the state."
Corda has a way with words.

[DixieBoy]

O.S.O.K. - Thanks for the heads up. By the way, I apologize to all if it was my lack of tact which caused Sixgun's thread to be locked. I'll keep the anger in check from here on out. - DixieBoy

[FWiedner]

I've got a big problem with alot of the new variety of sheepdogs.

The point here is that they are not sheepdogs.

They are mongrels. Dirty strays fresh from knocking over garbage cans to eat, that just managed to find a hole in fence.

Pretending to be sheepdogs doesn't make them sheepdogs, and they still stink.

[Ysabel Kid]

There is a problem with the story.

There are only sheep, wolves and sheepdogs.

It's missing people like us.

Like most here, I am a bear. I eat berries and vegitation and occasionally carrion and can kill to sustain myself but don't have to.

The wolves don't like me very much either and don't mess with me because they can tell the difference between me and the sheep.

The sheep like me because they think I'm a sheep too. But they are wrong.

The sheepdogs aren't quite sure about the bears - they mostly like the bears but some sheepdogs don't like the bears because they think only the sheepdogs should have fangs.

My fangs are actually much more potent and I am more skilled with thier use than most sheepdogs - not all, but most.

Bears are fine without the sheepdogs and resent being grouped with the sheep when that happens...

The story is missing the bears.

I think I will have a bear engraved on one of my firearms grips - and when people ask about this, I will use your superb addition to the story above!

The sheepdogs can be split into several groups as well. Kind of a quadrant - with skill level being on one axis and dedication to freedom being on the other. Many of the TSA agents and mall ninjas would fall into the "low skill/low dedication" quadrant. Folks like Jeremy would fall into the "high skill/high dedication" quadrant.