On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves
By Dave Grossman
One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me: "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," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there that 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, which 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, cannot and will not ever harm the sheep. Any sheepdog 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 warriorhood, 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.
"Do you have any idea how hard it would be to live with yourself after that?"
"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.
I was training a group of police officers in Texas, and during the break, 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 in "Fear Less," his superb post-9/11 book, which should be required reading for anyone trying to come to terms with our current world situation: "...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 sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically, at your moment of truth.
It's funny how the left continually call conservatives "sheep", while many of us are sheepdogs, and the left are actually the sheep.
Nope. We wish we would have attacked the proper countries (Pakistan, and not have cut and run in Afghanistan).
Iraq had nothing to do with the greatest tragedy on our soil.
That's exactly right, Mark.
All I can say is:
GOD HELP AMERICA! IF HILLARY CLINTON EVER GETS THE PRESIDENCY.
If the American people put her in office? Then Islamo-fascism will spread like the plague!
PLEASE DO NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AMERICA!!
PLEASE!!
WAKE UP, WAKE UP!! AMERICA
FIGHT FOR AMERICA! TO KEEP HER OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE COMMUNISTS!! Like: Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Jeremiah
America has to wake up and realize that a Democrat leadership, under Nancy Pelosi, is suicide for the nation.
Right in a Left World: Nancy Pelosi, Too Liberal for America
Moderate,
Yeah, that makes sense - invade Pakistan...brilliant move. You a descendent of Napoleon, or something?
Geesh!
Jerry, you need to lay off the red bulls, your tweakin out man.
There are battles and issues worth fighting for. We were attacked by a group of primarily Arab terroists. Not a country. Not a territory.
A group of madmen. So we go rootin around Afganistan and almost catch the guys. But no, we got to go to Iraq and dispose of some dictator there who we had already imposed sanctions on and had inpectors in there and all. Yeah, thats the ticket, we'll start the real fighting there.
Forget those Arab madmen, we got other fish to fry.
All you patriotic young people come on and inlist to fight the real boogie man. The iraqi Saddam Hussein. Ooooh scary stuff here. Don't you worry that 9/11 had nothing to do with our new boogie man just you sign up for the patriotic cause.
See fighting these Iraqi boogie men is like the fight we had in the big one. You know WW2. This is just like fighting the Germans and Japanese and those Italians. See they had an axis of evil too. Like the ones I described to y'all. The New and improved axis of evil. Iran, Iraq, and North Korea. Now that's an axis of evil if you ever seen one right?
So, all you patriotic youth out there remember this is the New War. The war on a method of fighting. We ain't got no war against no country. We got us a REAL war against an invisible boogie man. He's everywhere and nowhere. We can never really smash them boogie men cause they's like cockaroaches, they breed faster en' you can kill em.
So when we have a REAL war against a REAL country, and a real enemy, we'll have used up all our money and manpower and national unity fighting a boogie man. And lastley because he's a boogie man we don't know where he'll attack next. We just know he'll attack us again somewhere, sometime. So be scared. REAL scared. More scared than you ever been. More scared than you were in WW2.
Cause this is scary stuff. I'm gettin the chills and a little spooked out right now. He could be anywhere.
Look behind you Jeremiah!
Boo!
Speaking of a Cause Worth Fighting For --- 37 years ago is the anniversary of ---
Senator Kennedy given closed inquest
These two sentences should be combined for Teddy -- "so I can get on with representing the people". --- "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it.".
Instead of trying to fight for the life of Mary Jo, he just wants to get on with it ---
Instead of letting the inquest into the death of Mary Jo be public, he just wants to get on with it ---
Instead of standing up for attacks on American citizens, he just wants to get on with it ---
Is this the type of American you could be proud to be?
Thanks Ted, you have shown me what not to do, and to always choose the exact opposite of what you want.
Raker,
Perhaps you need to be educated on the terrorists, they're playing on Muslims' fears. Even if you don't feel it's important to enforce UN relutions in Iraq for their violating restrictions against developing medium range missiles which no one ever denied (and the old media didn't emphasize), then perhaps you may still have seen the NIE which says the war in Iraq is a cause celebre for terrorists, that they are coming from all over the Middle East (mostly Iran and Syria) to fight us there. The "group of madmen" as you call them believe the same thing that schools in the Middle East are teaching, that all non-Muslims are infidels and it's a path to Heaven to kill infidels. If schools in the Middle East are teaching it, maybe it's not a few bad apple, savvy? That's why they don't want a free Iraq, because they will no longer be able to brainwash students.
Mark,
Great post! I think this also has something to do with leaving education in the hands of women who research is showing promote feminine classrooms, where everybody has to get along, sitting in their chairs and following the rules. We're not rewarding our future leaders for standing up for themselves, for doing their own thing. So when we see a threat in the world, people who've been educated by their school teachers and their single mothers want to get along and avoid conflict rather than stand for something more.
A Dutch gay "humanist" (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool)
Only Mark Steyn could come up with such an apt description. My Dad helped liberate Oscar's dad from the Nazis -- too bad.
Great post, Mark. A while back Blackfive had one or more posts about how civilization is divided into 3 catagories, Sheep, Wolves and Sheep Dogs, and how each interacts with the other. It dovetails nicely with the topic of this thread. I'm not sure when it was, and Blackfive doesn't archive by topic. If anyone has the link to it, it would bear repeating.
On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs - Dave Grossman
The correct phrase is the cause "worth dying for." Bush says 25% are against any war. Tell country club Republicans there will be a draft with no deferments and their kids are going to the front of the line in the Iraqi civil war, I guarantee you more than 25% would oppose any war, because the number would now include Chickenhawk Republicans.
Where are the Bush kids? Where are the Cheney kids? During WWII Roosevelt's son was in the army. During the civil war Lincoln's son was in the army. If the cause is worth dying for, where are they???????
To the other point of the article, right will triumph, but leave God out of it. There is no way God gave us war in his name.
Retired Spook,
Here it is:
It's funny how the left continually call conservatives "sheep", while many of us are sheepdogs, and the left are actually the sheep.
dl and A-10. yep, that's the post I was referring to. Kinda says it all, doesn't it?
Retired Spook,
There isn't much that could be added. Darn sheep --- almost deserve their fate for their thinking deficient. Wish the sheep would quit biting the sheepdog in the butt all the time, especially while the sheepdog is engaged in a fight with the wolf. Are sheep only brave and smart enough to bite butts of the sheepdog, because they know the sheepdog doesn't really want to hurt them?
Mark,
"Here at home, a third of our fellows wishes that we'd stop believing in God"
Care to explain that comment. Maybe a 1/3 don't want your (mine)God and the religion behind our belief forced on them, but I have yet to find even one who actually want to stop my (private) believe in GOD.
Ohio,
Oh, officially the left has no problem with people believing in God...provided, of course, that we don't actually act on those beliefs.
Its like this - we can believe in God all we want, but for us to take this belief in God and say that because of what God commands, we should do such and such...well, the left goes in to fits when we do that.
Josh Keaton... enough with beating the dead horse already. At this time in this country, no one is forced to go into the military... neither by the government nor by parents. It is an individual choice to VOLUNTEER.
Hirsi Ali: Muslim Women Are the Key to Change Lgf, "Here’s a spot-on piece by Ayaan Hirsi Ali for the Sunday Times, on the raging, debilitating misogyny of Islamic societies":
Sunday Times Online: Ideas can be dangerous. I have learnt that the hard way. But I know that when it comes to freedom and human rights these precious ideas, so valued in the West, are worth fighting for. As a young Muslim woman, born in Somalia, I abandoned my family to avoid an arranged marriage to a distant cousin and fled to Holland. I was just 23 and I had no idea back then that my refusal to submit to a traditional Muslim woman’s life would come to dominate my whole career.
So for me, the debate that is raging about the veil, particularly the niqab, which covers most of the woman’s face save for the eyes, goes to the very heart of the matter of liberty for Islamic women. Not just freedom for its own sake, but from a life of repression, subordination and violence.
Last week, for example, a senior Muslim cleric in Australia alluded in a sermon to unveiled women as “uncovered meat”. Sheikh Taj El Din al-Hilaly’s remarks prompted outrage, but he will have many faithful followers who agree with him.
Such insults to women are all the more reason to welcome the recent stand by Jack Straw and Tony Blair on the niqab. Not only is it a “visible mark of separation” as Straw described it, but also a visible sign of subjugation. At the same time it serves to condemn the male as well. If I were a man I would find it insulting because it supposes that all men are incapable of sexual self-restraint.
Like Straw I have also drawn on my experience of dealing with constituents. I served three years as an MP in the Dutch parliament, devoting myself to speaking out about female rights in Islamic societies. I often had to translate for poor women immigrants who were usually barely educated and nearly always in thrall to men.
In Islamic societies the veil functions as a constant reminder to the outside world of a stifling morality that makes a Muslim man’s honour entirely dependent on the respectable, obedient behaviour of the female members of his family.