Are you a sheep or a sheepdog?

By Shannon

Dave Grossman has a theory about wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs.  It is well worth reading the entire theory here.

The majority of people are sheep.  They are kind, decent people who do not hurt each other except by accident.  In Personal Responsibility Matters I told you that 80% of crimes are committed by 0.3% of the population.  In 2009 approximately 3% of the population were victims of some sort of crime.  This tends to prove the point that most people are kind and decent.  It also shows that crime is still somewhat rare. 

Pic from www.gregwee.blogspot.com

However, crime does exist and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy.  Wolves have capacities for violence and no empathy for their fellow man.

The sheepdogs on the other hand, live to protect the sheep and confront the wolf.  Sheepdogs have capacities for violence like the wolf, but sheepdogs also have a deep love for their fellow man. 

Pic from www.atlantainjurylawblog.com

The relationship between the sheep and sheepdogs is best described by Grossman:

“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 sheepdog who intentionally harms the lowliest little lamb will be punished and removed [by the other sheepdogs]. 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.  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.  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.”

Reading the coverage of the shooting in Tuscon, I marveled.  Once upon a time, America cowered in crisis and waited for first responders.  However, post 9/11 many of us (including white-haired ladies) have become first responders.  More of us choose to be sheepdogs to protect one another in the moment of crisis.  That makes me proud of my nation.

Grossman says that a sheepdog is “someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.”  As a sheepdog, I disagree with him on this point.  Police, soldiers, prosecutors, and all those who look evil in the eye and say, “This far - no farther,”  we are not invincible.  We have flashbacks, fears, and PTSD.  We walk into the heart of darkness, not because we cannot be scathed, but because it is worth the scathing effect.  It is worth it when I get to tell a child that the jury believed her and her stepfather cannot ever rape her again.  It is worth it when I send a psychopath to prison so that he cannot hurt any sheep for awhile.  It’s worth it and yet I cannot seem to forget Nietzche’s warning:  “He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.”

Pic from www.alleged2bdelicious.wordpress.com