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Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: HD ()
Date: March 10, 2006 08:09PM

Ok, I am new to this board and have been reading many of the post and found them interesting. Maybe this will clear up some things between groups, maybe not. But I bet it will lead to some interesting post. This is a long read but it is interesting. I have never heard it put in this fashion before.


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. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997

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 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, cannot 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 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.

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.

My personal Signature
chk6
bob

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

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: from the 757 ()
Date: March 10, 2006 08:15PM

Someone please summarize.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: RESton Peace ()
Date: March 10, 2006 08:19PM

Obviously he didn't read the board too closely if he thought anyone would want to read that long-ass nonsense.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: pgens ()
Date: March 10, 2006 11:50PM

I beg to differ... this clears up everything! Sheepdogs and critters and wolves and stuff.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: burpgun ()
Date: March 11, 2006 12:11AM

Are you kidding me? Couldn't get through the 'honor' paragraph. Then thought the 'Vietnam' paragraph might kick things off, but was sadly mistaken... And the sentiment behind the U.S. Military propaganda line at the bottom was probably better expressed by George Orwell: "We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence upon those who would do us harm." (or something to that effect...)

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: PaperPusher ()
Date: March 11, 2006 08:09AM

Geez! critters and shit.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: WashingToneLoc-ian ()
Date: March 11, 2006 08:16AM

Interesting. So what do we do when our Sheepdogs are eating the Sheep in Iraq? Then the world community says, "Hey. Your fucking Sheepdog is eating Sheep in someone else's yard. Get them the fuck out of there." And our response is, "These aren't Sheep! They're Wolves!" But the vast majority are not. They are fucking Sheep, so the world thinks our Sheepdogs are actually Wolves and now the world is treating us like one giant pack of Wolves. A pack of Wolves led by a really arrogant, stupid and ignorant Wolf.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: Genevieve ()
Date: March 11, 2006 10:49AM

I'd agree with WashingToneLoc-ian, but as a sheep I am required to be in denial.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: March 11, 2006 12:16PM

WashingToneLoc-ian Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
So what do we do when our Sheepdogs are eating the Sheep in Iraq?

invest in Dogsheep. :)

i dont know what the post was really about as i didnt read it. the whole "it takes four Page Downs to get to the end" stopped me. so here are a few fandom thoughts remotely related:
  • sheepdogs, wolves and farmers like sheep, yet the sheep dont like any of them.
  • sheep in wolf's clothing = smart sheep.
  • you know that wolf in sheep's clothing bit? you know, that requires the wolf to do bad bad things to other sheep to keep undercover.

"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

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Simple Explanation...
Posted by: Tina3 ()
Date: March 11, 2006 12:39PM

757, RESton Pease, SS, MAD JD, burpgun, Especially PaperPusher, WashingToneLoc-ian, and Especially Gravis, you all are all the Sheep of the world. You have been too busy sucking dicks most of your lives, taking bong hits and going to your government jobs. In essence, there is nothing wrong with you all, but the prime example of "LOSER". Look it up, you will see your pictures.

The "Wolves" are the ones in your "PC" way afraid to call them for what they are. For example, Facist Islam. In your view, "if we were only nice to them they would understand and not want to hurt us".

The "Sheepdogs" are the men you will never be!

You all need to stop sucking dicks and grow up! I'm sorry, I forgot, you would rather have the hot dog than the taco!

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: from the 757 ()
Date: March 11, 2006 12:54PM

Someone tell me what that just said. I saw 757 and kinda peaced out. You guys type way too much.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: PaperPusher ()
Date: March 11, 2006 02:28PM

I've always been told that when someone runs out of substance to add to a conversation they start throwing out insults.

Tina3 is of course pissed off because he disagrees but has nothing better to add or no other way to contradict what is being said.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: WashingToneLoc-ian ()
Date: March 11, 2006 02:41PM

Tina3 is one of the "dead enders" who still believes Bush was right.

As for this Islamist Fascist bullshit, Al Qaeda is a cult of personality. It is basically a religious cult with no real following outside of a few hundred hardcore members and the occasional nut, like the guy at UNC, who blows something up or runs somebody over. It is not Communism and it is not Fascism, despite Bush's attempts to portray it that way. It is a handful of nut jobs who got lucky on September 11, 2001.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: SaMiViMa ()
Date: March 11, 2006 05:06PM

Huh?

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: mad max, JD ()
Date: March 11, 2006 07:22PM

How did I get dragged into this? If MAD JD is me.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: RESton Peace ()
Date: March 11, 2006 08:48PM

I'm always amused when someone who uses the terms "hot dog" and "taco" to describe human sexual anatomy calls me a loser.

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: Gravis ()
Date: March 12, 2006 03:33AM

note: skip this paragraph for the punchline.

so, being bored and awake, i read the article. it really oversimplifies matters and isnt really a valid metaphor. i think people ("sheep") want the cops ("sheepdogs") to go out and actively seek criminals ("wolves") instead of waiting for trouble to happen. instead cops do petty activities and act like pompous jackasses all the time and expect you to treat them like they are God. if you dont treat them as such, you are clearly the "bad guy" in the situation. if you wish to go back to the metaphor, it's like the sheepdogs(cops) have all the sheep(people) crowded together so closely in a circle(petty laws they enforce to an extreme) and if one of the sheep(a person) eats a blade of grass outside the circle, they are instantly consided a wolf (criminal) and the sheepdog (cop) bites the hell out of them because they have nothing else to do. soon the sheepdog (cop) starts seeing wolves (crimals) everywhere in side the flock when there are none. as for me, sure, im a nice guy but i understand that there are bad people who do violent and stupid criminal things. however, im more like a kamikaze ninja sheep. if you push me and ill push back just as hard. if you hurt me, ill ensure you will not try to hurt me again. if you hurt me thinking i wont retaliate, ill do it just to spite you. i however do have ethics and morals and dont just care about myself so i will stand up for and help other unwaranted.

to sum it all up, dont mess with this kamikaze ninja sheep or you will regret it.


"the wisdom of the wise will perish, the intelligence of the intelligent will vanish."095042938540

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: slippy ()
Date: March 12, 2006 11:10AM

i can only read picturebooks,, please translate

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Re: Sheeps, Wolves & Sheepdogs
Posted by: the resurrectionist ()
Date: September 09, 2015 10:55PM

Even back in 2006, FFXU posters were copy-pasting long articles that no one would read.

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