On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs

In the view of David Grossman, most people are Sheep, or "kind, gentle creatures who can only hurt one another by accident," a small percentage of people are Wolves who "feed on the sheep," a tiny fraction of humanity are Sheepdogs who protect the Sheep.  The Sheepdog is erroneously labeled a warrior by Grossman, but I question the title.

This interpretation of human violence and our preparations for violence does little to explain the distinction between warrior (self actualized person who chooses the manner of their own death) and soldier (trained killer who dies at the whim of others).  Ideally, our society would not need an extensive caste of police and military who patrol our borders and fly overseas to kill foreign nationals.  This is the security of the domesticated animal who has no capacity for self defense and must rely on the stewardship of a master for security.  We need a culture of wild animals who make their own living and defend their own families with their own weapons.

What our society needs is safe, happy families, strong fathers, and gentle mothers, not false paternalistic state functionaries who dictate how their livestock will live, reproduce, and contribute.  The destruction of American fatherhood and the redistribution of the family has destroyed the training ground of the next generation's warriors.  The last American war with actual warriors was World War II.  Since the destruction of the family, our military has consisted of indigent youth who are trained to fight for food, pay, and cheap sex.  These lesser fighters are being sold to our culture as warriors.  With the degradation of our cultural concept of warrior, we have inadvertently accepted cowards, bullies, despots, and other weaklings to manage our safety.  The answer to this degradation is to encourage the development of actual warriors, not paper tigers with little concern for human life.

Those who deal in violence must have a full understanding of its relevance in choosing the manner and circumstances of one's own death.  For what do our modern soldiers die to protect?  Trillions in national debt?  NSA programs to spy on citizens?  Entitled women and other privileged groups getting special assistance because of their identity?  Divorce cash and prizes for unfaithful ex-"wives" giving birth to other men's bastards?  Foreign citizens illegally raising their intact families on American tax dollars?  A failing, violent school system full of depressed, victimized teens?  The modern soldier has run out of reasons to die on the battlefield, save for suicide.  The real battle for America is being waged in the streets, schools, workplaces, courts, and homes, not in a Lybian ghetto full of burning corpses.

A warrior would simply not accept a war that limits his choice of death to the whims of others.  Our culture needs men strong enough to thrive under conflict and families worth protecting.  The modern warrior needs to stop fighting for his masters and start fighting for his own prosperity, lineage, and liberty.

Using Grossman's typography, the Sheep are now entirely composed of vicious, weak, entitled, ungrateful animals who attack in groups.  The Wolves are running the farm behind the scenes.  The Sheepdogs have all been slaughtered for feed, or driven out into the fields. The American warrior is a dying archetype.