Sheepdogs, Sheep, and Wolves

Sometimes you run across something that states positions you have, but in a clearer way than your own poor skills will allow. I ran across this on Twitter, of all places- a cogent explanation of Warriors and the warrior ethos vis-à-vis the rest of us:

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.

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.

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.

RTWT here. I file this under the category of things I’ve always instinctively known, but could never properly express.

Soldier in the Stan

In 1981, a film review by one Richard Grenier of the anti-war film “Breaker Morant” contained the following quote

It burns with a white rage against societies as a whole, from military leaders and chiefs of state to (more common in our time) comfortable civilians in easy chairs, who send rough men out to serve their interests brutally, murderously (what is war?), and then—when circumstances change and in the exquisite safety and fastidiousness of their living rooms they suddenly find these rough men’s actions repugnant—disown them.

Later he expanded on these thoughts

When the country is in danger, the military’s mission is to wreak destruction upon the enemy. It’s a harsh and bloody business, but that’s what the military’s for. As George Orwell pointed out, people sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

And policemen. And firemen. And, when the circumstances call for it, the members of the citizen militia described in the Second Amendment who can fill those shoes. If the crunch comes, each of us will have to choose; sheep, sheepdog, or wolf. Which of these will you be?

“God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion. The people cannot be all, and always, well informed. The part which is wrong will be discontented, in proportion to the importance of the facts they misconceive. If they remain quiet under such misconceptions, it is lethargy, the forerunner of death to the public liberty. … And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to the facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time, with the blood of patriots and tyrants. It is its natural manure.” – Thomas Jefferson

 

What he said

Bob Owens lays out a very possible scenario in chilling detail:

Tens of millions of Americans will refuse to comply with an order that is clearly a violation of the explicit intent of the Second Amendment. Among the most ardent opposing these measures will be military veterans, active duty servicemen, and local law enforcement officers. Many of these individuals will refuse to carry out what they view as Constitutionally illegal orders. Perhaps 40-50 million citizens will view such a law as treason. Perhaps ten percent of those, 4-5 million, would support a rebellion in some way, and maybe 40,000-100,000 Americans will form small independently-functioning active resistance cells, or become lone-wolves.

After a number of carefully-planned, highly-publicized, and successful raids by the government, one or more will invariably end “badly.” Whether innocents are gunned down, a city block is burned to ash, or especially fierce resistance leads to a disastrously failed raid doesn’t particularly matter. What matters is that when illusion of the government’s invincibility and infallibility is broken, the hunters will become the hunted.

Do you think he is being paranoid? I don’t. I don’t want to see this come to pass but it looks more and more likely every day…

Colorized Civil War pics

Someone has taken the time to use modern colorizing and retouching tools to some old Civil War photographs, with breathtaking results–

Robert-E.-Lee-598x859

 

From the comments: “Probably the most spectacular display of male facial hair growth I’ve ever seen” , heh. For an old Civil War buff (the South is full of ’em) it’s pretty cool to see these gentlemen come to life like this.

Moral Duty

Since everyone else seems to be having at Piers Morgan, shoot, I’ll have a go as well. Here’s Piers at his old pre-CNN job in Merrie Englande doing pretty much what he seems to be doing here:

Back in 2004, Piers Morgan was axed as editor-in-chief of the Daily Mirror, a British tabloid, for publishing photos of British soldiers who appeared to be abusing an Iraqi prisoner. They turned out to be fake.

Morgan also says he feels “vindicated” and that he has no regrets: “I feel like it was a moral duty … Sometimes you have to make a stand as an editor.”

Nice guy. Hope you never need for those fellows to have your back, Piers.

In all fairness, though, I disagree with those who want to deport him. For one thing, a vocal group from across the pond have started their own petition to please not send him back, they don’t want him. Also, there is that pesky First Amendment- I mean, what’s good for us should be good for him as well.

It also seems to be a good thing, to me at least, to have him around to remind us of why those shots were fired at Concord not all that long ago.

via the Blogfather