On Layouts, Burns, and Society

December 1, 2006

On Layouts Well I feel like I accomplished something today. Nanashi-Inc.net now boasts a fourth skin for your viewing pleasure The skin is called Anonymity and it is definitely a different look than what I normally go for, my hope is that it appeals to the people who aren’t too fond of my recent "morbid skins" as they’ve been called. Personally I don’t see anything morbid about them, but then again what do I know. Yes that was sarcasm. Thankfully my burn is clearing up, it looks like there might be a minor scar but I can live with that. I’m just glad it no longer twinges whenever I accidentally touch it or some one grabs my arm. The first day of classes was interesting, I swear I must have had a sign on my back that said "grab my left arm, it’s injured" because everyone kept grabbing my arm when talking to me or trying to get my attention. Needless to say, by the end of the day I was a downright cranky bitch. On Sheep, Sheepdogs, and Wolves… In my ethics class today we discussed Dave Grossman’s book On Combat: The Psychologies and Physiologies of Deadly Conflict in War and in Peace, of particular note is the idea of society being summed up into three groups: sheep, wolves, and sheepdogs. Grossman refers to an analogy he once heard a retired Vietnam veteran say: "Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." Statistics show that the murder rate is (on average) six per 100,00 and aggravated assault is four per 1,000 per year, which means that the majority of Americans are not out to get each other (thankfully). This makes a rather interesting situation, while crime rates have gone up significantly since the 1960’s when the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) was first created by the FBI, the average citizen rarely encounters crime of a violent nature. Civilization, Grossman says, are sheep. They are innocent and incapable of violence for the most part and must be protected in order for a society to grow. Society are sheep and the sheep live in denial. "Then there are the wolves," the old war veteran said, "and the wolves feed on the sheep without mercy." Do you believe there are wolves out there that will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe it. Wolves are likened to the criminals that plague society, of course not all criminals are as easy to spot as a wolf among sheep, but the basic of what he argues is true. Wolves, criminals, carry within them a capacity for violence and a lack of regard and empathy for society. "Then there are the sheepdogs," he went on, "and I‘m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf." The sheepdogs of our civilization are the men and women of our military, fire department and law enforcement. They risk their lives day in and day out to protect the sheep of society who give little to no thanks for the heroics that these people perform. For the most part, the average citizen, the sheep, would rather not see the sheepdog hanging about. They protest the presence of police in public schools, or the increased military presence in airports today. Yet when the shit hit’s the fan it is to the sheepdog that the sheep run to and huddle behind. It is the sheepdog that is expected to step up and take the wolf by the scruff of the neck to put an end to his existence. The sheep generally do not like the sheepdog. He looks a lot like the wolf. He has fangs and the capacity for violence. The sheep would much rather have the sheepdog cash in his fangs, spray paint himself white, and go, "Baa." There is one thing that Grossman seems to return to over and over and that is the idea that there are only the sheep who live in denial, the sheepdogs who guard the flock, and wolves that try to cull it. There are evil men in this world and they are capable of evil deeds. The moment you forget that or pretend it is not so, you become a sheep. There is no safety in denial…If you are a warrior who is legally authorized to carry a weapon and step outside without that weapon, then you become a sheep, pretending that the bad man will not come today. Everyone needs down time. But if you are authorized to carry a weapon, and you walk outside without it, just take a deep breath, and say to yourself,…"Baaa" To me this smacks of using alarmist rhetoric in order to get your point across and to bring people to your side. Grossman makes certain to point out and illustrate statistics which show that violent crime is not nearly as common place to the majority of the populace as our media would have us believe, then he goes on to incite officers and soliders to always be "on" despite saying that someone needs down time. His belief that there are only three modes a person can be in sheepdog, sheep, and wolf, is perfectly illustrated in the last sentence. Personally, while I believe that is analogy can be used to loosely describe our present day society, I by no means see it as completely accurate. The average citizen, the sheep, do live in a blissful state of ignorance, but ignorance is not denial. The majority of the populace see what is splayed across their newspapers and television screens but they do not understand it. The media, I believe, in their attempt to sell the news to people have in turn desensitized them to the world around them. People cannot completely understand what is going on around them when they are bombarded with sensory overload. Eventually what is reality becomes "something that only happens on television" and when this occurs they are left fumbling in the dark when reality retunrs to them in all its technicolor glory. Now I ask you, the sheep who are reading this, do you agree with Grossman’s analogy of our way of life? Is our society so gullible as to believe that the denial of a real threat will keep them safe, are there really only three possible outlooks in life to take? Thank you: Julie, Nan, John, and Yanah @ 10:59pm

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