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, 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 "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 police 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 a weapon. 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.
We Hunt Spies, We Stop Espionage, We Ki=
ll
Bugs, and We Plug Leaks.
James M. Atkinson, President and Sr. Engineer
Granite Island Group
127 Eastern Avenue #291
Gloucester, MA 01930-8008
Phone: (978) 546-3803
Fax: (978) 546-9467
Web:
http://www.tscm.com/
E-Mail:
jm..._at_tscm.com
Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:24 CST