I Am Sheep, Hear Me Roar

I went to a social gathering recently with mostly family members attending. Some I am not very close to (part of the extended family and in-laws), and others are closer. All of them are rather liberal. I got a strange vibe from a few of them, a coldness that had not been there the last time we had met. I started wondering, being paranoid as I am now, if they had read a few articles from here and were offended being called the “S” word.

I’ve pondered on this for a few days and thought I’d try to put a few thoughts on the topic into words.

I can certainly see why anyone would get a bit ticked if they were called a sheep. Considering the context of that moniker, it is not an endearing term to be labelled (although anyone could come up with something worse). Still, I have never called a live person in my presence a sheep. I mean the term to be applied more to a concept of a particular way of thinking, than to an actual person or group of people—although you certainly could do that.

I do think, however, that any individual person could be a partial sheep in behaviour; maybe some are more sheepish than others, and maybe some present a more hardcore full fledged sheep-thing. But again, it is a behaviour you either identify with or don’t. If the sheep-shoe fits, then maybe it is best to wear it. I mean, really, haven’t we all been sheep-like at one point in our life? (Or many points?) I certainly have, more often than I would like to think.

So, what do I do about family members thinking I am a stinko for calling them sheep? Dear so offended, I’m sorry you feel that way, really I am, but being a sheep is a self-assessed assignment. If you believe that you are not a sheep, you might not be one. I don’t know what you are. And ultimately, who really cares? If you have friends, are a loving person, and believe in good things, then you can be either a sheep or a shrew, and I really don’t care. I don’t pass judgement on the individual. I have found that in the liberal camp (where many sheep reside) there are loving and caring human beings. Being liberal does not make you a sheep. There are many liberals who are not. (Well, maybe not many, but probably a few.)

Being a sheep doesn’t make you good or bad either. Many sheep are bad, many shrews are bad. Most Covid vaccinated folks are sheep, but not all of them. I would say most likely if a person is still gleefully getting boosters, they are probably a sheep. But if so, so what? Maybe that person will wake up, maybe they will start thinking and figure it out.

If you are one of the people who read some of my articles and are offended that I allegedly called you a sheep, and you fit the criteria and believe you might be—what does that mean? It means more than likely you don’t put a lot of thought into doing something that most other people are doing. It means you don’t evaluate the reason for taking an action on your own. You probably don’t listen to a variety of opinions, thoughts, or evaluations of these actions. You listen almost exclusively to the mainstream media (meaning just about any popular news source), and you find other news sources suspect, unreliable, or downright filled with mis and dis information.

The term “sheep” means you follow the wagging tail in front of you without thinking too much about it. Is this horrible? Well, it is more than likely to get you in trouble down the road. So far (in your life) it hasn’t caused too much trouble, so why not? The government (or whatever authority you are listening to) has been decent—they have been smart, with smart, scientific people either in charge or carefully listened to (according to you). What could go wrong?

You don’t want to listen to all these conspiracy theorists or all of the crazy science deniers. Why not listen to what is tried and true? That makes sense, doesn’t it? Sure it does. The problem with that way of thinking is that it simply is wrong. And to tell you the truth, it never has been all that popular. Although, at one time in our history, following this path was less likely to cause intense harm, it has always been thought of as the sheepish way to go. Americans, in particular, have historically been encouraged to think outside of the box (or so they told us), to critically analyze situations, and although, as a society, we have been expected to conform to a large degree, we still had pride in the fact that we were open-minded and “thought” about things before making decisions.

Some would argue that this was never the case, but I believe it certainly was more the case then than it is now. Now many of us choose not to think carefully at all. It is so much easier to just get our cues from the sources we trust and move with the herd.

I’m not sure what else to say. Keep in mind as well, I am a writer. I write what comes to me without a lot of concern of offending anyone. In this way, I am sort of like a stand-up comic. If I use a term that offends you—like “sheep”, I don’t mean to offend you. And who cares what I think anyway? I’m certainly not going to change the world or affect your life with anything I may write.

I’ll end by saying some of the most important people in my life would possibly (or probably) end up in the sheep camp if carefully analyzed. But I still love them. Most of them I know to be good people. Most of them I know to be highly intelligent, thoughtful, and kind. I love them for these things, not for their politics or for their sheepishness. Oops, there I go again, sorry. But if you must be a sheep, bleat loudly. Let the guy behind you know you are the one to follow. Who knows, one day you may become a shrew and lead a whole flock of sheep to the other side of the fence.