Warning: Some content in this post may be offensive to some people.
“Sheep go to heaven,” the song say but let me tell you about what I’ve seen about sheep. I’ve worked with the real sheep and they’re fine creatures If you like creatures that either do what you need them to do, or do exactly what you don’t want to do, en masse. They will mostly stay together, which makes them easier to monitor but they can be hard to move if their leader doesn’t want go. It’s like having a stubborn mule with 50 legs.
They aren’t unaware or stupid like some people think, they just default to group behavior. When you must separate one out for any reason, it will not want to go. Even if it’s just one pin over and they can still see, hear and smell the rest.
I understand why some people prefer to default to the herd instinct, it feels safe, more predictable and feel that they don’t need to answer all the tough questions. However, there is a reason I call these people “sheeple.”
Sheeple are a specific class of people who follow their guiding person or principle so strictly that they begin to act against their own self-interest. These are the people you can’t convince to change, no matter how much you concretely demonstrate how bad their decisions are.
Now, before I get too far into it I have to make a distinction. People with mental illnesses, drug addict and victims of abuse are not what I’m talking about. Each of these people have underlying conditions that make their behavior a lot more complicated. Their actions may be based in flawed chemistry, addiction or for reasons of personal, children safety.
Sheeple are reasonably stable, reasonably healthy and reasonably safe individuals who keep doing things which are in some manner bad for themselves or their family. Don’t worry, I am about to insult just about everyone in a single blog post.
Who are these sheeple? Oh, you can see them in every walk of life from the poor to the insanely rich. Just to name a few I can think of off the top of my head:
Brand Loyalists: They’ll buy only Addidas shoes, Budweiser beer or anything with “Trump” on it, even if it’s not made by the Trump machinery.
Political Loyalists: They’ll vote for anyone who fits their political affiliation, even if that means that their life gets harder because of it.
Religious Zealots: If you’re not part of their religion, you must be evil and therefore must be converted, shunned or killed.
Racists/Classists/Sexists/etc.: If you’re not like me, you’re trash, subhuman and I’m allowed to do whatever I want to you.
All sheeple to some degree or other.
We are driven to be in groups but not all groups are healthy for us. Being a part of a running group is probably a pretty healthy group to be in, unless it’s a running group that specializes in chasing down gays, black people and Jews to beat them up.
Of course, what is considered good or acceptable in one culture may not be in another. I was raised in a culture where men did not abuse women so I find cultures which allow a man to beat up and rape his own wife quite repulsive.
I was raised to question, to examine and even to experiment within reason. As I have written about before, there were always some simple rules to follow but there are always rules to follow in a family, organization, society or culture. If you never question, test or explore the boundaries then you’re another kind of sheeple, as far as I am concerned.
A serious problem with sheeple is that they will hate on you just for being different, even if that difference is ultimately meaningless to them. To them just even looking different is a threat. I can’t even express how stupid I think that is.
I understand people wanting to live simple lives. I get tired of the amount of complicated stuff I need to do. Some people seem to think that life has become more complicated over the years, especially because of technology and now artificial intelligence. Let me tell you though, life has always been complicated. We’ve just moved from hunting, fishing and growing our own food to navigating the web and the layers of people who are trying to scam us from every direction.
So, how do you not be a sheeple? It’s really simple, acknowledge that you, your creed, your culture, society or whatever does not hold all the answers. No one, no matter how smart, has all the answers to all the questions. Then, go try something new. Try ten new things.
I will not say that it’s an easy path. I have had to walk it all my life because no one could answer my questions to my own satisfaction.
It’s like when my father was trying to sell me on the Santa Claus story. I remember standing thee looking at our little wood stove, with the locking door in front. I’m thinking, “Sure, this guy’s going to turn to smoke, go down our fireplace door, and then reform with body, clothing and all?” Or something like that but put into five year old terms. I didn’t buy the story. That was before I discovered where my grandparents hid all the Christmas presents.
If you want to learn to be more adaptable, attempt to put together something you’ve never assembled before without looking at the instructions. For an extra challenge, have someone hide an important piece from you. Make it work, then get the piece back and put it back together the correct way. Compare what you tried to the way it needed to be done.
You don’t have to be a sheeple. Many choose to be out of fear of the unknown. Uncertainty is a part of life. Anyone who claims to have all the answers is a liar and you had better make sure they stay away from your credit cards.
I don’t claim to have all the answers. In fact I say, “Prove me wrong, please.”
Many of the sheep I helped take care of on the farm were eventually taken off to be slaughtered.
Be a goat.
