There Are Only Three Kinds of People:
Wolves, Sheep and Sheepdogs.
Which one are you?
Years ago I heard a lecture given by retired U.S. Army LTC Dave Grossman, (author of “On Killing),” about wolves, sheep and sheepdogs. Based on my own experiences as a Combat Solider, a 35 year Police Officer, a SWAT Officer and a “Defensive Firearms Instructor,” and with the help of my wife Stacey, also a retired LAPD Officer and instructor, I have taken the liberty of writing our version of this subject which is somewhat different from the lecture I heard years ago. Our life experiences obviously being different from those of LTC. Grossman gave us another perspective that we wish to share with you. The use of the wolf, sheep and sheepdog are excellent metaphors to make our case. Not perfect but useful and thought provoking.
This article may cause people who live in denial to be angry. Many will find a way to dismiss the point of this article. They will rationalize and convince themselves that the issues discussed here do not apply to them, applicable perhaps to others but not to them. They will continue to ignore the truth because it frightens them and they are the sheep. Reality to sheep is so frightening that some may be afraid to finish reading this article.
Who are the wolves?
The criminals and the terrorists in our world are the wolves. They prey upon the sheep. The wolves commit nightmarish crimes for reasons which are perfectly justified in their twisted minds. These wolves do not kill, rape and torture to survive. They do these things because they are truly evil.
The wolves in our society will commit horrible crimes against the sheep every single day and night. We all know this. If we are not prepared to confront these predators then we are simply plodding through life, hoping that the wolf will select another. Our citizenry has largely become a flock of sheep who cower when the wolf comes, secretly relieved when some other sheep is selected by the wolf.
We lock our doors and we watch our children because of wolves. We form neighborhood watch groups and pay taxes to support a police department because we know that wolves are real. We put up with airport security procedures and police check points because we have seen the carnage caused by wolves. We support an Army to fight wolves all around the world. We educate our children regarding the danger of wolves and how to avoid them. Our lives are affected by the threat of wolves every single day.
The economic cost of incarcerating wolves is staggering. The wars we are waging against wolves have drained our nation’s blood and treasure. Wolves are the things of which nightmares are made. There are such things as monsters. We see them on the news every evening and some of us will see them up close and having done so, we may never be the same.
Who are the sheep?
Most people are sheep. They accept no responsibility for the safety and protection of themselves, their families or their flock. When sheep live their lives hoping that they will not be taken by the wolf and yet knowing that the wolf is going to take someone, the sheep are in effect hoping that the wolf will take their neighbor. Is hoping that the wolf will take someone else a strategy? Is it moral? Is it Christian? Is it American? How did Americans come to this deplorable state of deciding to be sheep? Sheep foolishly pretend that someone else will always be there to protect them. Many Americans complain constantly about the “Nanny State,” where the government attempts to provide everything for everyone, while taking our freedoms in the process. Yet these same people expect the government to provide them with personal protection which is not even physically possible.
Most sheep which are attacked by the wolf go to their graves or the hospital, wishing for help and thinking, “this is not fair, I do not deserve this.” Deserve has nothing to do with it. Fairness has nothing to do with it. Fairness is a childish notion. If life were fair, babies would not be born with horrible illnesses. Adults need to get over the idea that life is going to be fair and that the wolf will choose another sheep. Sheep often believe that they will not be chosen by the wolf because, “I am a good sheep and I will be spared.” To this type of thinking we can only say, grow up! Bad things happen to good people every day.
Who are the Sheepdogs?
Finally, there are the sheepdogs. They guard the flock. They are the protectors of our society. They are the soldiers, the police officers and the armed citizens who have accepted the responsibility for protecting themselves and others by the use of deadly force if necessary.
The sheep are not always comfortable with the sheepdog because the sheepdog looks a lot like the wolf. The sheepdog is armed. He has fangs (guns). This frightens the sheep. The sheepdogs run toward danger. The sheep find this confusing because they only run away from danger. Often the sheep do not like the sheepdog until the wolf comes. Then the sheep try to hide behind the sheepdog, begging for his protection.
Sheepdogs do not live life hoping that the wolf will select someone else. Sheepdogs are prepared to stop the wolf and have accepted their responsibility for confronting evil in our society. If the wolf attacks the sheepdog then there will likely be one less wolf. On occasion the best prepared sheepdog will lose, but he will go down fighting, killed on the spot doing his duty. He will not be dragged off and tortured to death. There are things worse than death and those who surrender to the wolf often learn what those things are.
When the sheepdog hears of yet another horrible crime committed by the wolf he does not feel relief because the wolf chose another for his victim. He does not hide his head and try to pretend that such a fate could never befall his family. Instead he is reminded to remain alert and re-evaluate his own preparations to contend with such an occurrence.
One difference between real sheep and human sheep is the fact that real sheep are born sheep. Human sheep have decided to be sheep and can change into sheepdogs if they elect to do so. Human sheep can change from cowering victims to sheepdogs by being armed, well trained and mentally prepared to use force in the defense of life. Sheepdogs can make their families expectation of protection a reality. Sheepdogs are living up to the ideals of being an American.
Do not assume that you are a sheepdog because you own a gun. Owning a firearm that you could not reach in the first two to three seconds of a crime does not qualify you as a sheepdog. Owning a firearm with which you have had little relevant defensive training does not make you a sheepdog. A sheep who has not cultivated the Combat Mindset required to react properly and quickly when facing the wolf is not a sheepdog. A true sheepdog is armed and has the skill and the combat mindset to fend off a wolf attack, the outcome of which will normally be decided in the first few seconds.
Duty to Family.
Allow us to explain something that you may not have considered. Self defense is not simply a right, it is a responsibility. We do not have a right to protect members of our family, we have a duty. Our families believe that we can keep them safe from evil events. In most cases this is nothing more than a fairy tale, a false promise.
If armed home invasion robbers force their way into your home today or tonight what will you do? What could you do? Resistance without the means, the mental preparation and the skill is courageous but the end result is likely to be the same. The wolf wins.
“That could never happen to my family.” And why is that? Why your neighbor and not you? It is my opinion that the Doctor in Connecticut who lost his entire family to home invasion robbers when his wife, 17 and 11 year old daughters were tortured, raped, doused in gasoline and then burned alive, never imagined that such a thing could ever happen to them. Can we even comprehend having to relive that nightmare every moment for the rest of your life? Can we possibly imagine the last memories on this earth of those young girls and their mother? We are aware of countless horrible crimes where a sheepdog could have stopped the carnage but all those present had chosen to be sheep.
Duty to Community and Country.
When a sheep fails to stop a wolf from torturing, robbing and assaulting him because he has no means to stop the wolf, the sheep bears some responsibility for the next victim. Had the sheep been a sheepdog prepared to stop the wolf, all of the future victims of that wolf would have been spared. The wolf is the culprit but every victim has the potential opportunity and the duty to save the next victim by defending himself.
Defending ourselves is a duty that we have to our society as well as our loved ones. When we fail to stop a criminal from victimizing us because we have not assumed the responsibility for protecting ourselves, our families, our community and our nation we have failed to live up to the ideals of being an American. Real Americans do not expect others to do all of their fighting for them. Living our lives knowing that wolves will attack someone every single day and hoping that the wolf will not attack us, is in a sense, to hope that the wolf will attack someone else because we know that he is a wolf and that is what he does.
At one time most Americans were Sheepdogs. Now, unfortunately, most Americans have decided to be sheep. If more sheep would again become sheepdogs we could all sleep more safely in our beds. A small percentage of our society are wolves, responsible for the attacks on the sheep. If more wolves were stopped by more sheepdogs, the frequency of attacks would soon diminish. Attacking the sheep would be so dangerous for the wolf that such attacks would become far less frequent. We would each have more peace of mind knowing that we were no longer at the mercy of the wolf which has no mercy.
If Not You, Who?
The Police will keep us safe, right? Did you know that courts have ruled that the police have no duty to protect anyone? Did you ever consider that the police protect you after the crime by trying to apprehend the wolves who tortured and murdered you and your family? Do you understand that the only one who can protect you during the crime is you? Do you not watch the news and see that evil occurs everywhere, in every neighborhood to all age groups, all economic groups, and both genders?
The wolf is afraid of the sheepdog and well he should be. Who among us will now elect to continue through life as a sheep, cowering from the wolf and hoping that the wolf will take someone else? Who will choose instead to become a sheepdog that can and will protect himself and his flock?
Those who expect the government to protect them during a crime are thinking like a child. During my 35 years in law enforcement I can recall every single time I stopped a rape, attempted murder or violent robbery during the crime because to do so was very rare. The LAPD, like most police departments, tries to prevent crime by their presence but more often than not, investigates crimes after they have occurred.
The sheep need to accept the fact that no one can protect them or their flock except the sheepdogs. The sheep must stop hoping that the wolf will continue to attack others. The sheep must choose to become sheepdogs and assume the responsibility for the protection of their families. The sheep must stop wishing for reality to change and become some fictitious ideal which has never and will never exist, for there will always be evil in this world.
A brilliant man once said that evil is the absence of God. If that is true our increasingly secular society is likely to get a lot more evil in the future, not less. The wolves may well run rampant in the streets. If this comes about, a great many sheepdogs will be required to save the flock.
We are each responsible for our own protection and the protection of our families. This has always been true and it always will be true. The sheep need to start living in the real world, not the one they wish existed but the one that does exist. The sheep need to accept their responsibilities as fathers, mothers, husbands and wives. They need to act like Americans and fulfill their obligations. They need to decide to stop being sheep and start being sheepdogs.
The fact that statistically there is a fair chance we might live our lives never becoming the victim of a violent crime will be no consolation to us should we suffer the horror of a such an attack. For those who do survive a violent attack the physical and emotional scars will be with them as long as they live. Even worse, how will we cope if a family member is victimized and we are unable to help, all the time knowing that we could have prevented the attack if we had been prepared?
What could possibly be more important than the safety of your family? Ask yourself, what have I chosen to be? Have I allowed a left leaning pacifist society to mold me into a sheep? Is that my heritage as an American, to expect someone from the government to protect my family? Am I so gullible that I believe it is even possible for someone else to protect us during a crime?
The wolf is out there looking for his next victim. Somewhere right now a wolf is preparing to meet you and defeat you. What are you going to do about it? When the wolves roam the streets it will be too late to prepare. When opportunity (necessity) coincides with preparation, success occurs. Will success be yours or theirs? Do not wait too long to decide, lest the wolf decide for you.
Larry and Stacey Mudgett