Posted on 01/28/2015 6:45:34 AM PST by Citizen Zed
This past weekend, American Sniper sold millions of tickets, and introduced millions of Americans to a novel turn of phrase. In an early scene set at the dinner table, Chris Kyle’s father tells him that there are three kinds of people in the world: “wolves, sheep, and sheepdogs.”
The scene is a canny invention by screenwriter Jason Hall, but he didn’t come up with that analogy. The origins of this sheepdog analogy help explain why the film has resonated with audiences. The sheepdog speech comes from Lieutenant Colonel David Grossman’s book On Combat, published in 2004. (It doesn’t appear in Kyle’s best-selling memoir, although the family and friends running Chris Kyle’s Twitter account did tweet about it in December.) Since then it has spread through military and police circles and the right-wing blogosphere. It’s proved particularly durable with gun rights groups. With the release of American Sniper, it has reached its largest audience yet.
Grossman crafted this analogy in response to 9/11 and the war in Iraq. And it’s not enough to classify the human race into these three simple categories; Grossman—and those who parrot his metaphor—are issuing a call to action to defend yourself against your enemies. In a country where innocent, unarmed, mostly black Americans keep getting killed, it’s a pernicious worldview to hold.
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
Read it, and have heard Grossman speak at an Air Force JAG Keystone Conference a few years ago. He’s a military psychologist who also coined the term, “killology” - also the name of his website, IIRC. I was thoroughly impressed with him live, and the book is excellent. One money quote: “If you are legally authorized to carry a gun and you step out your front door without it, you have chosen to be a sheep.”
Colonel, USAFR
Leftists, I’m sure, HATE that analogy.
They don’t like to think of themselves as sheep, or wolves, and they sure know they aren’t sheepdogs.
Deep down, I’m sure they understand that what they believe is detrimental to human prosperity,
but they hold on so tightly to their self-righteousness through their advocacy that they can’t give it up.
The Slate crew is more like a pack of hyenas. Not brave enough to be wolves, but hungry enough to eat whatever appears weak and limping.
Liberals are paranoid and afraid because they are weaklings. They don’t understand what it means to be vigilant and aware of your surroundings.
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