ON SHEEP, WOLVES, AND SHEEPDOGS
By Lt. Col. (ret.) Dave Grossman, Army Ranger, psychology professor, author of "On Killing" and "On Combat".
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 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, "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
an 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.