A different perspective.

So many people see the value of being one of the flock or herd, safely guarded, providing wool and hapless lambs as required. The flock reduces the members to numbers, "safety in numbers" basically means that the flock is viable, as long as headcount stays above a certain minimum.

A certain percentage of people also see the value of being the vigilant guard, aware of every bump in the night, and the evil that lurks in the world. The flock provides, the guards stand ready. Most who guard are capable of self preservation at the same extremes as the predator, but choose this other path.

And then there are the predators. If you remove the flock, they will prey on each other, if they are truly alone, they will subsist on smaller prey, looting, scavenging, digging up roots or bugs, but feeling secure because they aren't members of the flock, to be sheered or butchered at the whim of the owner.

The forgotten group are the ones who own sheep. They decide where cities will be, how often the herds will be culled, by wars, "social experiments," or whatever else they've dreamed up to keep everyone under control.

When you look at a person, just any person you don't know, at the store, or going about your business, you really don't know which group most of these fall into. You might try to guess, it's a habit lots of people get into. Either to try to encourage their own belief that they fit into one of these groups, or to feel better about themself by thinking less of others.

To whom is it in the best interest to guide people into being in one group or the other?

Obviously the "owners" of flocks want nice BIG flocks. And the members of the flock want big families, so that the occasional loss doesn't wipe them out completely. It would help if they understood that they are being kept as much in that condition as possible, because then they wouldn't fall for the same stuff over and over. Do you know what happens when the flock gets a decent education? Smaller, tight-knit families, that explore, settle, spread out, become less flock-like and more guard-like or predatory, and don't always do things just because they are told to. Some maintain enough flock-like behavior to keep their heads down in hope of not being butchered.

Families too small, and rely on each other instead of the herd? Destroy families and encourage indiscriminate, random, poorly thought out breeding. Provide wellfare to make sure that no one even gives a thought to the long term consequences.

People escaping the herd to live where they won't be browbeaten for thinking differently? Make remoter areas more difficult to purchase in a variety of ways, and subject them to needless regulation. Make sure to pass laws over-controlling or making expensive the basics needed for existence. Outlaw collecting rainwater, installing cisterns or use of composting toilets. Outlaw garden plots or keeping food animals.

If they resist the endless rounds of control and fleecing, shoot them. But try not to let the whole herd know about it. Distract them, bread and circuses are always popular.

So, when someone starts talking about sheep, sheepdogs, and wolves, be sure to ask them who's getting the most wool blankets and lamb dinners out of the arrangement.