I was reading a series on the internet and ran into the following. I think that it fills in the missing piece. I'm retired military, I no longer function as a sheepdog, but I am not a sheep.
Must be why I shoot a Stag rifle.
"There's a Lt. Col. Grossman who writes about people in terms of being sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves. He says that wolves eat sheep, as that's their nature. The bad guys that do mean things to people are the wolves. He says that one percent of the population are wolves.
"On the other hand, sheepdogs protect the sheep from the wolves. They accept that there are wolves, and that it is their role in life to protect the sheep. Sheepdogs look for wolves, and anticipate the fight. Grossman says that one percent of the population are sheepdogs.
"Now sheep are a totally different story. They deny that wolves exist, until the wolf comes knocking on their door. Then they are terrified, and paralyzed with fear. That's when they scream for the sheepdog to come protect them. However, when the wolves are not around, the sheep fear the sheepdogs, because they look too much like wolves. Sheepdogs have scary fangs, and can be quite aggressive, but it is their job to keep the wolves at bay.
"Grossman says that ninety-eight percent of the population are sheep. That's where he's wrong. He missed the stags. Unlike sheep, stags don't deny that wolves exist. They don't rely upon sheepdogs to keep them safe. They are ever vigilant in watching for wolves. At the first hint of a wolf, the stag disappears. For the most part, we are stags.
"When Napoleon marched across Europe, there wasn't a single one of us in his path. When Hitler made his bid for world dominance, we were on a different continent. Was it cowardice on our part? I don't think so. It is just a different survival skill than used by sheep, sheep dogs, and wolves.
"The wolves think stags are sheep because they often share the same field. The sheep think stags are sheep because they don't have fangs. Sheepdogs don't trust stags because they are neither sheep nor wolf.
"When a stag is cornered, it doesn't just stand there and bleat, hoping to be rescued by a sheepdog. It will defend itself. It will lower antlers, and try to gore the wolf. It will used its hooves in an attempt to kill the wolf. A stag does not go down gently. That's what we're doing now. We're fighting.
"Repeatedly in our history, we've surprised the wolves when they discovered that we weren't sheep. It is why, when it comes to fighting them, that we surprise them every time."
