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alarimer

(17,146 posts)
15. The wolf-sheep-sheepdog analogy has always bothered me.
Mon Feb 2, 2015, 11:26 AM
Feb 2015

First, wolves are not vicious killers. They are predators and they do what predators do, usually picking off the easier targets: the ill, the old, those that can't keep up with the herd. In this, they provide a valuable service in nature, in the form of natural selection. The reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone has been extremely beneficial to the environment as a whole, despite the protests of ranchers, and there has not been a big problem with loss of livestock. Wolves keep populations of herbivores in check, some of which are capable of spreading disease to cattle and the like.

So wolves get a bad rap.

Sheep also get a bad rap. They have their role as well. And, yes, I have derided people generally as being too willing to go with the herd. But that's what society is really. We have an agreed-upon social contract. Or we should, at least. One in which we care for those who cannot do for themselves adequately. BUT we must also question our leaders (so we cannot act like sheep all the time).

And sheepdogs are not, as far as I know, attack animals. They herd, they harass the wolves away, but they don't kill them. their mere presence usually enough. Predators do take the easy way out whenever they can. It's no use wasting energy going after something that won't be worth it in the end. They need to get energy from prey and not expend too much trying to get it, or they will lose.

In any case, that analogy assumes the "enemy" whoever they may be are not people just like us, when in fact they are more like us than Chris Kyle or any chest-thumper would have us believe. Iraqis, in particular, had every right to protect their from the invaders (i.e. Chris Kyle). WE were the ones in the wrong in this particular case. Iraq did nothing to us.

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