Salt of the earth

I liked this comment on an older post about sociopaths being just a natural human variant:

This is very encouraging to read. It does seem more logical to see there being an intended role in nature for those considered psychopaths rather than being an aberration or flaw.

I think the statistic I read somewhere was that approximately 4% are psychopaths. This seems to be exactly the proportion of managers you'd need for any group. Those that can make hard or even life and death decisions dispassionately for the preservation of their tribe, corporation, or nation. The fact that those same people tend to be gifted with an easy charm to persuade others and that they naturally migrate to positions of power would seem to reinforce this. What would be perceived as evil by the recipient might be seen as good to the group following the psychopath who subsequently have food to eat for the winter, a surplus of wives to mate with, or more valuable stocks.

The fact that I see myself equating the decimation of a rival tribe with acquiring increased stock value is not lost on me. Humorous to me though in it's own way...

Are sociopaths like salt? Even just a little too much can ruin a dish, but if you don't have any you'll eventually die? One of the facts that stuck out to me as a child in social studies class was learning that in certain parts of the world at certain times in history, salt was worth its weight in gold. Has that ever been true of sociopaths in history?

Sheeps, wolves, and sheep dogs

This was a sort of interesting (and a little blowhard-y) essay on the role of sheeps, wolves and sheep dogs:

Everyone has been given a gift in life. Some people have a gift for science and some have a flair for art. And warriors have been given the gift of aggression. They would no more misuse this gift than a doctor would misuse his healing arts, but they yearn for the opportunity to use their gift to help others. These people, the ones who have been blessed with the gift of aggression and a love for others, are our sheepdogs. These are our warriors.


We may well be in the most violent times in history, but violence is still remarkably rare. This is because most citizens are kind, decent people who are not capable of hurting each other, except by accident or under extreme provocation. They are sheep.

I mean nothing negative by calling them sheep. To me it is like the pretty, blue robin’s egg. Inside it is soft and gooey but someday it will grow into something wonderful. But the egg cannot survive without its hard blue shell. Police officers, soldiers and other warriors are like that shell, and someday the civilization they protect will grow into something wonderful. For now, though, they need warriors to protect them from the predators.

“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.” Or, as a sign in one California law enforcement agency put it, “We intimidate those who intimidate others.”

If you have no capacity for violence then you are a healthy productive citizen: a sheep. If you have a capacity for violence and no empathy for your fellow citizens, then you have defined an aggressive sociopath--a wolf. But what if you have a capacity for violence, and a deep love for your fellow citizens? Then you are a sheepdog, a warrior, someone who is walking the hero’s path. Someone who can walk into the heart of darkness, into the universal human phobia, and walk out unscathed.


Sheep dogs? Maybe. (Cue the young sociopath want-to-bes asserting that they are wolves raised to be sheepdogs?) I am actually fine with the idea of there being sheepdogs. Generally speaking, it's the sheep dogs that keeps everyone else in ignorance. I have nothing concrete to really base this on, but it seems like sheep are not like deer or other natural prey that are naturally skittish? They get lulled into this false sense of security? Which is actually a pretty great way to run a society, for a lot of reasons.