The Wolves do not train for what they do, it is part of their nature, and this is important.
The title of this post is also the title of an essay by By LTC (RET) Dave Grossman, author of “On Killing.”
Here is a paragraph from the essay and a link to the complete text.
“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 who will feed on the flock without mercy? You better believe 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.
“Then there are sheepdogs,” he went on, “and I’m a sheepdog. I live to protect the flock and confront the wolf.”
Here is the link to the complete essay. https://www.mwkworks.com/onsheepwolvesandsheepdogs.html
To a minor extent, people who choose to study any Martial Art fit into the Sheepdog category, even when they aim only to defend themselves.
I do not expect many people to take the time to read the whole essay, especially as it is specifically American and mostly aimed at “First Responder” types, so here are two of the final sentences that sum up the mood of the text.
This business of being a sheep or a sheep dog is not a yes-no dichotomy. It is not an all-or-nothing, either-or choice. It is a matter of degrees, a continuum.
The degree to which you move up that continuum, away from sheephood and denial, is the degree to which you and your loved ones will survive, physically and psychologically at your moment of truth.
There is a great deal to unpack in this essay, some may find it challenging to see their own life and experiences reflected in it, but it is there for all of us if we know what to look for.
Generalising and simplifying society into these three categories in a way we can relate to could be that there are people who willingly and without excuse randomly and viciously attack people they do not know.
This would be the Wolf, its main weapon is deceit and surprise, and these people rarely take any kind of organised training.
Then there are the Sheep, we all hold our own IDEA of who and what they are.
And lastly the Sheepdog. A person who unflinchingly places themselves in harm’s way, even if it is for only personal safety and this type of person is usually trained and frequently still training.
The Wolves do not train for what they do, it is part of their nature, and this is important.
It helps us develop a deeper understanding of the “Context” involved in random violence, it helps us get a deeper understanding of what we can expect from our training, and it allows us to face without the slightest embaresment the claim from “Combat Athletes’ or even those in our traditional Martial Arts community that favour competition, that our training is bogus and useless due to it focusing on simplistic “Generic Attacks”.
Which of course it does.
But that is the point.
IF YOU REALLY WANT TO GET BETTER,DO NOT TRY TO DO MORE.
Wing Chun Sydney, Australia 