Posted on 08/04/2008 3:50:44 AM PDT by sig226
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.” Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, “We intimidate those who intimidate others.”
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? Then you are 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.
The gift of aggression
"What goes on around you... compares little with what goes on inside you." - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Everyone has been given a gift in life. Some people have a gift for science and some have a flair for art. And warriors have been given the gift of aggression. They would no more misuse this gift than a doctor would misuse his healing arts, but they yearn for the opportunity to use their gift to help others. These people, the ones who have been blessed with the gift of aggression and a love for others, are our sheepdogs. These are our warriors.
One career police officer wrote to me about this after attending one of my Bulletproof Mind training sessions:
"I want to say thank you for finally shedding some light on why it is that I can do what I do. I always knew why I did it. I love my [citizens], even the bad ones, and had a talent that I could return to my community. I just couldn’t put my finger on why I could wade through the chaos, the gore, the sadness, if given a chance try to make it all better, and walk right out the other side."
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 dozens of times more likely to be killed, and thousands of times more likely to be seriously injured, by school violence than by school fires, but the sheep’s only response to the possibility of violence is denial. The idea of someone coming to kill or harm their children is just too hard, so they choose 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. As Kipling said in his poem about “Tommy” the British soldier:
While it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, fall be'ind," But it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind, There's trouble in the wind, my boys, there's trouble in the wind, O it's "Please to walk in front, sir," when there's trouble in the wind.
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.
While there is nothing morally superior about the sheepdog, the warrior, he does have one real advantage. Only one. 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 acts 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.
However, when there were cues given by potential victims that indicated they would not go easily, the cons said that they would walk away. If the cons sensed that the target was a "counter-predator," that is, a sheepdog, they would leave him alone unless there was no other choice but to engage.
One police officer told me that he rode a commuter train to work each day. One day, as was his usual, he was standing in the crowded car, dressed in blue jeans, T-shirt and jacket, holding onto a pole and reading a paperback. At one of the stops, two street toughs boarded, shouting and cursing and doing every obnoxious thing possible to intimidate the other riders. The officer continued to read his book, though he kept a watchful eye on the two punks as they strolled along the aisle making comments to female passengers, and banging shoulders with men as they passed.
As they approached the officer, he lowered his novel and made eye contact with them. “You got a problem, man?” one of the IQ-challenged punks asked. “You think you’re tough, or somethin’?” the other asked, obviously offended that this one was not shirking away from them.
“As a matter of fact, I am tough,” the officer said, calmly and with a steady gaze.
The two looked at him for a long moment, and then without saying a word, turned and moved back down the aisle to continue their taunting of the other passengers, the sheep.
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?”
"here is no safety for honest men except by believing all possible evil of evil men." - Edmund Burke Reflections on the Revolution in France
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 slaughter 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 police officer 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 14 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?”
The warrior must cleanse denial from his thinking. Coach Bob Lindsey, a renowned law enforcement trainer, says that warriors must practice “when/then” thinking, not “if/when.” Instead of saying,“If it happens then I will take action,” the warrior says, “When it happens then I will be ready.”
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 fear, helplessness, horror and shame at your moment of truth.
Chuck Yeager, the famous test pilot and first man to fly faster than the speed of sound, says that he knew he could die. There was no denial for him. He did not allow himself the luxury of denial. This acceptance of reality can cause fear, but it is a healthy, controlled fear that will keep you alive:
"I was always afraid of dying. Always. It was my fear that made me learn everything I could about my airplane and my emergency equipment, and kept me flying respectful of my machine and always alert in the cockpit." - Brigadier General Chuck Yeager Yeager, An Autobiography
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 a 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 sheepdog 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-grass 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.
THE Most BASIC HUMAN RIGHT - self-defense.
I carry a firearm; unabashedly, unashamedly, and even more than a bit defiantly. I am an AMERICAN CITIZEN, with the rights granted by God, defined in the Constitution, and secured by the blood and sacrifice of AMERICAN MANHOOD.
People are safer wherever I am, because THAT is the DUTY, OBLIGATION, and RESPONSIBILITY of ALL who call themselves AMERICAN CITIZENS. If citizens surrender the initiative to the more base and animalistic in society, you get the society that the animalistic deem appropriate.
I choose not to surrender that initiative.
If I can STOP a violent action, I will; If I can PROTECT an INNOCENT life, I will. If I can DEFEND my COUNTRY, MY NEIGHBORHOOD, MY FAMILY, I will.
About sums it up.
Thanks for the ping.
“I was BORN an AMERICAN. I LIVE as an AMERICAN; I shall DIE as an AMERICAN, and I intend to perform the duties incumbent upon me in that character to the end of my career. I mean to do this with ABSOLUTE DISREGARD of personal consequences. “
- Daniel Webster
I remember there was an outcry. Thank you very much for the link. Reading.
But push comes to shove, I'll be a grizzley that doesnt like the taste of lambchops...
I agree with Teddy about the eagle. It’s a scavenger
FWIW: When a notable member of such a group was asked why the perpetrators from those groups victimize members of those groups (trying to stay really PC here, sorry) instead of those outside, he responded that the perps would generally not survive such attacks.
Are you talking about gangs, as in Mexican gangs killing blacks in CA, just because they're black, and vice versa? I'm not PC. LOL
The sheep comment is very appropriate - and in tune with my long-standing signature.
I remember reading of a violent incident at a K-Mart where the shoppers were aware of the problem. I think it was a nutcase with a knife running around and shouting.
One customer later commented that his kid asked him “Dad do you have your gun?” (a big No No IMO). Other customers heard the kid and started to gather around the guy for protection. Probably the same ones who would have been against passage of CCW.
My daughter and I were in a grocery store one evening when we heard two carts collide and an argument start.
When we rounded the corner here were two men. One tall, 6 foot, about 185 pounds squaring off with a shorter fatter guy......with garden tools.
One had the little 3-prong rake, the other the small trowel shovel.
It was hilarious, I started laughing out loud and they both started giving me grief for laughing at them. They BOTH turned and brandished their 'weapons' at me.
I calmly moved my coat open so they could SEE the 1911 I was carrying in it's holster. I then informed them we were walking to the store office to call the police.
They were both pretty meek after that.
I’m talking violent gangs vs. polite middle class.
I recall a deputy commenting that such behavior would be ... um ... dealt with. And I have reason to believe my polite pretty neighborhood is way more armed than any ghetto block.
I think the search to define us as sheepdogs, rams or grizzly bears is a futile one because we are the chosen ones who protect America and her citizens. We are the eagles constantly observing the herd animals shifting from one plateau to another. We are the ones who take note of the hungry carnivors who trail behind the herds killing their young and unprotected aged. We are the ones who examine the corpses taking note that the fallen were stricken with viruses and diseases brought to our land from offshore invaders.
We are the only ones who have to courage to stand and fight the Quislings. It is our job to determine if our laws and politics have been corrupted to a such a state of desperation that arms are necessary to bring our Republic back to health.
The burden on our shoulders is indeed a heavy one. We have been selected for the task as protectors because we are not animals. We wisely do not instantly respond to all attacks the way an animal would because we recognize that some attacks are searches seeking to gain knowledge of our size, strength and capability. The Quislings need to know what our plans are. They must determine how to defeat us if they are to continue. These traitors fear us because we believe in a power that they can never defeat and it sure isn’t Islam.
I tend to view my fellow patriots as something good for all humanity such as an antibacterial antibiotic, say penicillin.
My honorary uncle Archie was a cop in Glendale in the ‘60’s, and he taught me much of what I know about shooting. One of the things he told me was to never “brandish” a weapon. Keep it holstered (or at least held down out of sight), or put it on-target and fire. Here 30 or 40 years later, it still seems good advice to me.
Please add me to the gun club list. Not all of us New Jersey residents call 911 and die, you know.
Shoot ‘em up!”
To paraphrase a common directive when I was going through BASIC: “Shoot ‘em if you've got ‘em.”
I agree with your take on this subject. The only firearm I currently “own” is about a thousand miles from me right now. I left it there to keep it from getting stolen when I was moving so frequently in the military, and haven't recovered it yet. Not possessing any firearms, however, doesn't mean I don't think anyone else should. If I can get my financial situation straight before I die, I intend to get a CCW permit, and fill a large gun safe. In the meantime, I've got a couple of crossbows, and the whole family is outfitted with swords. Not as effective as a pistol or rifle, but even a ballpoint pen can be a weapon if someone is interested enough. I've also spend most of the last decade in places where I wouldn't be allowed to carry a firearm if I had one, and I'm hoping to see those laws changed soon, too, on both the local and Federal levels.
I'm not steady enough to shoot long-range targets, but full-auto weapons can be fun! And practice for self-defense is never, ever, wasted time.
Amen! Thank you for your service and ditto your comments on self defense. Have you seen Benchmade’s new tactical ball point pen? Fine looking and versatile tool.
I recall a deputy commenting that such behavior would be ... um ... dealt with. And I have reason to believe my polite pretty neighborhood is way more armed than any ghetto block.
I agree with you on the violent gangs. Aren't most of them violent any more? MS-13 is the worst, IMO. What's scary is that their education level is maybe the first grade. Illiterate gang bangers whose biggest thrill is pleasing the gang by committing violent crimes against people.
People in my neighborhood are armed to the teeth too. Of course we live in the country, so that's a given for survival.
Not all. A group identified by their pink button-up shirts was finally caught harassing our community sign. They were guilty of lousy art, not violence.
I'd never seen the Benchmade tactical pens, but I carried one of these until the last week of school this year, when I loaned it, and lost it, during a small emergency.
It's not quite so nice as the Benchmade, but much cheaper. $10 apiece if you buy less than 25 of them. Solid brass body, heavy and solid. The back end of the pen is a dialer for old-style rotary dial phones, and would probably break someone's skull quite handily. The writing end is reasonably sharply pointed, so I suspect it would distract anyone you poked with it considerably.
Since I'm kinda broke at the moment, I'm thinking of using my new lathe to make one of my own. I just may study that Benchmade for a bit before I start cutting... Thanks!
That was an informative and thoughtful article - thanks!
I work with a retired soldier, rank, name and branch of service will remain unknown, he was recently terminated from a high school teaching job as he broke a students arm in 3 places. It seems this student decided the teacher was an easy mark and pulled a knife on him and took up what was considered a offensive posture. At the hearing where he was terminated he told the student and the parents they could be glad he did not have a gun at the time as he would not have bothered with breaking his arm, but used the gun instead. The school board was “shocked” at that statement. Makes me know where some of the local sheep are and what their reaction is when the sheepdog is turned loose.
I worked as a teacher's assistant at a local high school a few years ago. One of the kids asked me what would happen if a bunch of them attacked me. I said “I'd probably wind up in the hospital. But I wouldn't be the only one.” None of them ever messed with me.
Had a young woman trying to hurt one of the other young women one day. Told her she had to go through me first. She asked what would happen then, and I told her once she came after me, she was a legitimate target, and after I stopped her, I'd be suing her parents for everything they had now, and would ever have. She decided to settle down.
One day two of the boys started fighting at the other end of the room. I got there after the first two or three swings and hits, and got between them just as one started to swing. He reached up with his other hand and grabbed the one on its way to my face and stopped it. I guess he believed me, too.
I suspect there was really only one difference between us, however. My administration supported me, and his didn't. Simple as that. Things like this are why I live in Oklahoma now, instead of California, where I was born. Even the libs here generally support 2nd Amendment Rights.
Mind, I was never in combat arms, just a tech in the Air Force. Attitude has a lot to do with it. I keep running into kids I worked with who tell me that I helped them a lot. Pretty much all I told them was that they were responsible for their own actions, which would have consequences. Some good, some bad. They just needed to think things through, and decide which consequences they wanted, and what it took to get those consequences instead of the others.
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