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 still is 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.  It is 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 that 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, " I'm

glad I wasn't on one of those planes."

The sheepdogs, the warriors, said, "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 no 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.  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,

because 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.

"If It Weren't For The United States Military There

Would Be NO United States Of America"

If I may be so bold to add... "Without the Second

Amendment, we are all turned into sheep; and Without

the Second Amendment, there will be NO United States

Of America"