Choosing to be Helpless

              So the other night I was listening to my fire fighter friend explain to his two year old the difference between wolves, sheep and sheepdogs.  I’m not entirely sure the metaphor sank in, but it was cute.  As he explained it, Sheepdogs protect the Sheep from Wolves, because Wolves like to eat the Sheep.  He used me (honored, truly) as an example of a Sheepdog.

               I looked at his son and shook my head.  “What I really want, dude, is to make all the Sheep into Sheepdogs,” I said.  Then we went onto other things.  Then, I started to think about what I had said and what my friend had said, explaining how good guys protect the helpless from the bad guys.  It struck me that prior to the 1960s, we had fewer Wolf attacks on the Sheep, and yet we had far fewer Sheepdogs.

               I asked myself how that could be possible with the Sheep, Sheepdogs and Wolves model we have adopted in recent years.  I don’t think the predators of the human race were less evil prior to the 1960s.  What is the difference?  It wasn’t the Sheepdogs by profession; it was the Sheepdogs in Sheep’s clothing.

               In the natural world, the average sheep doesn’t stand much of a chance against the average wolf (though there is a lesson—for another time—to be learned in how sheep flee or even fight when the jaws clamp down).  The sheep is helpless, and that is the word that intrigued me.  In the natural world, the sheep are helpless by natural design, compared to the wolves; they do not choose to be dinner.

               That is the difference between 1950s America and 21^st Century America.  In 1950s America, people did not CHOOSE to be helpless.  People were tougher.  They might lose if attacked by Wolves, but they wouldn’t surrender.  The only thing better than losing with honor—because you fought as hard as you could, and maybe died in the fight—is winning.  But, the worst of all is to die a helpless victim.  Now, I say this recognizing there are people who are legitimately helpless, in the true sense of that word, and they are the reasons we have professional protectors in the first place.  I’m not saying the infirm or babies should be able to fend for themselves in a violent world; they are actually helpless.  I am saying that the difference between 1950s America and 21^st Century America, is that the adult population of today chooses to be helpless.  It is not a conscious choice, to be sure, but the result of effective marketing by the Sheepdog industry.  The best example of this marketing was the reassuring tone taken by our government after September 11^th.  You were told to go back to work and to not be frightened because the Sheepdogs are on it; the rough men are standing on the walls ready to do violence on your behalf.  The heroes of 9/11 are still out there, ready to storm the fires and face down the evils of the world.  There is nothing nefarious about these things in intention.

               However, one of the consequences is that we have been convinced that there is no threat that cannot be handled by the white hats.  Yet, since September 11, 2001, how many attacks have there been when there were no Sheepdogs around?  Or, worse, when the Sheepdogs at Fort Hood were prevented from being themselves and defeating a Wolf in a Sheepdog uniform because they were not allowed to defend themselves?  Here’s my point: we have been lulled into a false sense of security by our rediscovered—and altogether appropriate—respect for the military and gratitude for our first responders.  But the unintended consequence is that we have a society that has chosen to invest our lives and protection to others, believing (falsely) that there is a cop around the corner, or a fireman a block away or a soldier on a wall, or a SEAL slitting pirate throats on our behalf.  So, believing they are safe, most American adults in the 21^st Century, unlike the 1950s, do not invest mental, physical or emotional energy into training to protect themselves.  In other words, unlike the sheep doomed by nature and genetics to its lot, many American adults today choose to be helpless.

               So, as I thought more about the metaphor I decided that the Sheep of the 1950s, who we should emulate and aspire to be, are not the same as we know today.  You don’t have to be a Sheepdog, but if you’re gonna be a Sheep, be a Bighorn Sheep.  Be hard to kill.  Have some fight in you.  Ever watch a Bighorn Sheep beat the crap out of something?  It’s impressive for a “Sheep.”  So, sorry for the constantly extending metaphor, but it gets back to a difference between 1950s America and today.  Some people cannot help themselves, cannot fight for themselves, and it is indeed they for whom rough men are willing to do violence tonight.  For the rest of you, whose legs work, whose arms work, whose brains work, whose trigger fingers work, GET TO WORK!  STOP CHOOSING TO BE HELPLESS AND GROW SOME....HORNS!

Thanks,
Soule
Easy 6