Tuesday, June 8, 2010

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 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 and idea
how hard it would be to live with yourself if your loved ones 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.