Sheep dogs are someone’s property and they help control other property. It sounds like a liberal’s fantasy of society. You know, the flock carefully tended and controlled with the sheep dog doing the master’s bidding.
No thanks.
I only plan on defending me and mine.
You’re on your own, sheep.
Thank you. I hate that metaphor.
My boundaries go a little farther … I told Mike the other day that
1) I am 100% sure that rioters will never charge down my street a la Great Britain;
2) if they do, we’re taking in two of our neighbor families with kids because they’re nice people and I care about them and they don’t have guns of their own. (that I know about)
Thank you. I hate that metaphor.
Passionately.
How do you feel about the Porcupine metaphor?
Also hate that metaphor.
Eventually the master always uses the sheep dog to herd the sheep to slaughter.
Yep, Joe.
Sheepdogs imply a Shepard who fleeces and, once in a while, eats sheep.
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Not a sheep. Not a sheepdog. Just another predator in the food chain, but with a moral compass. Don’t start nothing, won’t be nothing.
It’s a metaphor being used in an email campaign to get you subscribe to a CC website that also has a magazine. The ad campaign annoys me to no end — the metaphor above being a key factor in that.
Why am I still getting emails from them, instead of getting off their list? Because Tam and other GB’ers write for that magazine, and I do want to subscribe to their services.
Congratulations. You’ve discovered that no metaphor is perfect when taken to a ridiculous extreme.
Have a cookie.
You don’t have to go far to get extreme with this particular metaphor. Go all the way down the rabbit hole to the offensive source, and you’re already at extreme.
Goood sheepdog! Gooboy! Protect the sheep. Here’s a treat. Grossman doesn’t identify the shepherd in his little fantasy, but I’m sure he’s a very nice man.
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Adam: this whole “sheepdog” thing is for cops and wannabe cops.
Cops work for the state these days. They refer to us as “civilians” ( even though many did not serve in the military ).
“Civilian” is apparently the new “sheep”.
Sheepdog is an excellent metaphor. Sheepdogs eat every day; what they eat is meat; the meat is sheep.
A cop who lies, cheats, steals, or tolerates cops who do, is a sheepdog.
Sheepdogs protect the sheep so they can be sheared regularly. When the sheep no longer produce enough to be useful to the shepherd he turns them into mutton and feeds the scraps to the dog.
“I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin’s egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers, and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.”
The metaphor very emphatically listed police and military. It also lists other warriors, but in our society I’m not sure that applies.
I’ve never felt like the sheepdog, who has an official responsibility to protect the population at large. My obligation is only to those with whom I am entrusted…My family, my friends. Will I respond to a threat larger than that? Of course, under circumstances that also endanger those with whom I am entrusted in the larger or longer term sense. BUT…I am not a sheepdog!
We need to stop using a metaphor was never designed for the general population of gun owners.
Much better to use Jefferson’s version:
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
I do and always will think it is a great metaphor. Like all, if you go too far into it, it may lose meaning. It is meant as it its stated, Sheep, Sheepdogs and Wolves. There is no master/herder in the original document. I would have a hard time believing that the average person cannot see the intent of this. And yes, it does apply more to Military/LEO, where there is an obligation to protect more than those you love. If it doesn’t apply to you, leave it at that, but you should be able to appreciate it for what it is…
If there is no “master”, there is no “sheepdog”.
Herding is not a natural form of recreation for dogs, unless they are attempting to hunt something.
I too, am no Sheepdog. Urks my dad when I flip his patriotic analogy. As a 43 year old southern feller I prefer to liken myself to a good ol’ bulldog. I ain’t lookin to beat on the little dogs but won’t back up from any dog… EVER!
If I see some less defended or less able critter gettin’ their butt handed to them by a predatory critter, I will make the decision to help or not.
If I choose to help there is usually a little desire to scrap that I am getting to unleash. When done, the little wimp walks off to lick their wounds. I get to march off “bulldog proud” and I really don’t much care how the predator fares…
I am obligated to know one but my own family/pack to provide any level of protection… That is 100% voluntary…
And if my family/pack is ever hungry, them “sheepdogs” will have their hands full as I will feed on them and their flock if need be!
Brent
there is a sheepdog mentality in many people I know, not sure if they’re just huffing and puffing or serious
only one Sheepdog saying I like is the “the difference between a sheepdog and a wolf is about 4 days of food”