I wanted to post this one in my blog for ease of recognition and
recalling. It is indeed one of the best descriptions of the word that
I've seen yet and is what keeps us motivated every day!
Wednesday, 06 February 2013 02:04
Brandon Smith
Some phrases are endowed with immediately recognizable symbolism.
When we hear them, we instantly know who and what the phrases are
referring to, and can even gain a greater depth of understanding to a
particular situation just by applying them. They cause us to step
outside our environment and look at it in an entirely different way.
They might make us laugh, they might make us cry, but we are not
indifferent to these affecting words.
Throughout history there have always been people who were right, and
usually a “majority” that were wrong, on any single issue. Defenders of
institutionalized ignorance argue constantly that truth is “relative”,
and that they should not be criticized for having their own "opinions".
They use this relativism as a cover for their unwillingness to admit a
lack of knowledge. I would ask them if they believe that they are
always right? That they have nothing to learn? If the truth is
“relative”, if morality and principle are “gray”, then who in their mind
has ever been wrong? It would seem that the only people they view as
absolutely amiss are those who confront the establishment. Those that
question the system they are so addicted to.
What they fail to understand is that their “opinions” were never
theirs to hold. What they believe has merely been conditioned into
them. They are willing to embrace the system no matter how unjust,
because their entire identity is predicated on its continued existence.
We do not admonish people necessarily because they are unaware (all of
us were unaware at one time or another), but we do admonish them for
denying the blatant facts in order to avoid admitting that they are
wrong, and that they have perhaps been duped by the establishment. So,
what do we call those people who remain willfully ignorant (or
comfortably oblivious) in the face of the facts and follow along with
the herd (the mainstream) to the detriment of the truth?
We call them sheeple…
The term “sheeple” has quickly become a word that defines an era. It
is not just a tool for ridicule, though it does indeed seem to hurt the
feelings of the ignorant and unaware, which to my mind, is a good thing
(If they can feel shame over their factual inadequacies, then perhaps
one day they can be redeemed). No, there is much more going on here…
When
one is surrounded by blatant absurdity and total loss; loss of freedom,
loss of compassion, loss of humanity, that person needs a way to
describe the horror. A way to shed light on the dark insanity of it. A
way to remove the barriers of confusion and build a clear path to
reason. He needs to quantify the threat, so that he can move beyond it,
and towards understanding.
In our modern age, we are
absolutely stricken with an epidemic of willful idiocy that bears no
rational excuse. A century ago, such behavior in a culture could have
been chocked up to a bottleneck in the flow of concrete information.
But today, mankind has a veritable buffet of data at his fingertips at
any given moment. The fact of a thing, the truth of a thing, can be
arrived at with a mere modicum of effort and a remedial passion for
learning. We can plead “lack of access” no longer. The only obstacle
left is us…
Yes, our government and our society have become
corrupt to the core. Yes, the traditional sources of information in the
mainstream media are utterly useless and dishonest. Yes, our public
educational system is completely federalized, and our schools have been
warped into lemming factories where young minds are bled dry of all
creative power and individuality. Yes, the system we are born into is
designed to make us stupid. However, the establishment has not yet been
able to extinguish our ability to walk away. We ALL have a choice: to
be taught by others, or, to learn for ourselves.
At the end of the day, sheeple are sheeple not because they have to be, but because they want to be…
It
is the greatest and most exploitable weakness of man; our willingness
to sacrifice anything in order to avoid admitting we know nothing. This
is the philosophical slum of the common “sheeple”. It is pathetic, and
it is ugly, and it is a rampant plague upon the world in the year of
2013.
The time is coming, very soon I believe, when the
sub-populous of sheeple will be used as cannon fodder to institute
change in America on an unprecedented scale. It has happened many times
throughout history. The establishment, seeking unlimited power,
brandishes the dimmer subsections of the citizenry like a political
Louisville Slugger, swinging them about wildly in an attempt to smash
the ideological enemies of the state. Often, the sheeple are oblivious
to the fact that they are being used as a weapon against liberty, and
against truth. They only know that they must participate to “survive”,
even if that survival ends up being a hollow and meaningless life.
Now
more than ever it is important for the Liberty Movement to understand
and identify who these people are, and what makes them tick. Time grows
short, and it is easy for us to become mired in the haze of a
glassy-eyed herd. Sheeple can be saved from themselves, but only if
they can be made to recognize these particular behaviors as part and
parcel of their own folly…
Institutionalized Laziness
Some
sheeple are not ignorant because they are unintelligent. Rather, they
are ignorant because they refuse to expend any energy in discovering the
facts of their world. They have become used to the idea of being
“taught”, rather than going out to learn for themselves. It is easier
to be told what to think than it is to develop one’s own world view.
Sheeple often state that they “just want to be left alone”, and “don’t
want to think about the troubles of the world”, yet nearly all of them
at the same time want to feel as though they have an effect on the
future. They want the benefits of a sound and balanced society but
don’t want to put in the work to make such a society possible. They
want “other people” to make the system work, and “other people” are
certainly willing to take advantage of sheeple inaction. Tyranny cannot
exist unless people willingly hand over their personal responsibilities
to the system. Sheeple make oligarchy and dictatorship possible.
Arrogance Without Merit
I
have met many people in my life that are not fully aware of how their
world works or why terrible things happen to them. This by itself is
not necessarily bad. If one is able to accept that he needs to learn
more, then he has far surpassed most of society in the strength of his
character. Unfortunately, sheeple do not share this attitude. They not
only lack remedial knowledge on most issues, they are also unwilling to
admit it, and, even viciously attack those who DO have substantial
information.
Is this due to an inferiority complex? Possibly.
They are so invested in the mainstream world view as presented by media
entities and government that they take it as gospel. They live the
mainstream ideal, but, secretly, they harbor doubts. They know that
they do not have the capacity to defend the system if confronted by an
intelligent and well-versed opponent, and so, they develop a demeanor of
arrogance and contempt for those who question it. This uppity manner
is a defense mechanism meant to hide the weakness of their arguments.
Combined with Ad hominem attacks, distraction, and physical threats,
sheeple try to ward off critics so they do not have to engage in a
legitimate debate they know they will lose.
Always Worried What The “Majority” Thinks
Sheeple
are steeped in the realm of the mainstream. So much so that they have
become nothing but a cog in the machine of the collective mind (or hive
mind). Their entire existence is predicated on blind faith in the
system. If the system is proven to be flawed, then THEY are proven to
be flawed by extension. They will ignore all reason and defend the
system wildly, as if trapped by some cult, because their fragile
identity is dependent upon the continued prosperity of the
establishment.
Sheeple are in most cases motivated by
nothing but fear. In their early years they likely either caved to the
force of peer pressure and learned to diminish their personal pain by
constantly conforming to the majority view. Or, they sought inclusion
in the majority very early on and became addicted to the power that the
collective is able to wield over others. In either case, they never
actually questioned whether or not the “majority” was right in its
behavior. Instead, they decided at some point in their life that the
majority is ALWAYS right simply because it is the majority.
Never Questions The Professional Class
Sheeple
are easily impressed by anyone with a nice suit, uniform, lab coat, or
an embossed diploma or title. They see and revere the costume,
regardless of the man inside it. For sheeple, titles and positions of
arbitrary authority make the opinions of a man more than opinion; his
opinions suddenly become law.
While a Liberty Movement activist
looks for the legitimacy within the individual professional, the sheeple
places all faith within the institution that professional represents.
His personal character is of no consequence to them, and the idea that
he may have no clue what he is talking about does not occur to them.
Obsession With The State
Because
the average sheeple hasn’t the slightest inkling of how to be
independent or self sufficient, they attach their survival to the
success of the state. They see the word of the state as sacrosanct, and
have no concept of government by the people. They will sing the
praises of democratic elections and the will of the public in general
participation, but, when the state goes against that will and does what
it pleases, they will seek to rationalize this criminality.
For
them, government as a construct might be fallible (or not), but this
fallibility does not change the finality of state authority. The
government is not to be interfered with and certainly not to be
opposed. To stand against the state is to stand against law, and the
law, in their minds, is god. Questions of morality are irrelevant.
They have become so far detached from their conscience that there is
nothing left but a pitch black void, waiting to be filled with the
demands of oligarchy.
When confronted by men who are willing to
fight and die to interfere with the abuse of state authority, they
respond with shock and revulsion. How could anyone possibly stand
against the will of the mainstream and its government champions? How
dare they defy the establishment!
Blind Commitment To The False Left/Right Paradigm
When
confronted, sheeple almost always move immediately to meaningless party
labels. They will attack you as a “Democrat”. They will attack you as
a “Republican”. But their presumptions of what makes a Democrat or a
Republican are entirely skewed and inaccurate. This is, of course, not
really a problem for them.
They will not acknowledge the vast
similarities of corruption between both major parties because this does
not serve their interests. They do not WANT to know what Liberalism is
versus Neo-Liberalism. They do not WANT to know what true Conservatism
is versus Neo-Conservatism. They only want an easy way to dismiss you
and the information you present without having to think. The false
left/right paradigm makes this possible.
Predictable Responses
Sheeple
are highly predictable two-dimensional creatures. When confronted with
their own failings, they will follow a pre-programmed list of responses
meant to divert and confuse discussion.
They will claim that
“everyone thinks they are smarter than everyone else”, and that really,
the “truth is relative”. History does not support this twisted view,
however. There are always moments in which some people are morally and
intellectually correct, while many others are dangerously misguided.
Some people make decisions that lead to chaos and destruction while
others make decisions that lead to prosperity and creation. The truth,
the cold hard truth, is NOT relative. It is unyielding, it is
uncompromising, and it is final. To be successful as human beings
requires us to be on the right side of truth more often than we are
not. To assume that the truth is “malleable” to our particular desires
of the moment is to always be on the wrong side.
Sheeple rely
primarily on character assassination and belligerent disregard for logic
in order to derail debate. They do not attack your position so much as
they attack you personally. They scoff, they giggle, they taunt like
children, but when it’s all over they usually say very little of any
substance.
Finally, they will use the weapon of majority
opinion as a get out of jail free card, and in most cases this is not a
ploy. They really do believe that if the larger percentage of the
public accepts a conviction, then that conviction automatically becomes
fact. Their goal, therefore, is to constantly ride the wave of majority
opinion so that they will always be in a position of “righteousness”.
Of course, this way of thinking has in the past led to some of the worst
atrocities in recent memory. The collective mind has no concern for
individual freedom, including the freedom to live in peace. Physical
and psychological violence in the name of conformity is very common in
such cultures.
Sheeple are puppets in the game of political
reconstruction, and their job is to cheerlead the establishment and to
drown out all honest voices. They are generally remorseless as long as
they never have to face tangible consequences for their blind support of
the system. They seek to strengthen the bars of the prison because the
outside world of free thought and expression intimidates and paralyzes
them. In an environment where survival is dependent on individual merit
and principle, sheeple hold no currency. No capital. This might
explain their overt hatred of individualists. For when we in the
Liberty Movement seek to unchain and decentralize the world, we
indirectly cut the umbilical cord between them and the nanny state.
They see our fight for freedom as a threat to their ease of existence,
and their very lives. Sadly, their “comfort” is derived entirely from
our enslavement.
