The herd...

A great many number of times, when talking about old or the oldest professions, I hear people suggesting prostitution and journalism to be the winners of this antiquity award. Why these two professions? Well it's easy to understand. Those, who suggest prostitution, cement their suggestions with the fact that humans always wanted to have sex, and sex might be the first thing that humans bought or sold.

Those, who suggest journalism as the oldest profession, reiterate their claim saying that all human life always depended on information. Like if you would had wanted to find a new forest to hunt in, you needed information and that information source can be labelled as a journalist.

To tell you the truth, the reasons, behind being the elder, given by both groups are numerous, and each one a lot more interesting than the other, but I'm not going to drag you deep into this discussion. Why? Because, whatever might be the argumentation, I don't agree with the first or the second group.

I'm solid sure that Sheep Herding or sheep farming is the oldest of professions, and is in fact the basis of all human civilizations. I know you'd say that this a huge statement, and most probably you'd start thinking that I might be crazy, but I hope by the end of this text you'll understand that I'm not insane, and more so you'll also understand the foundations of human civilization.

Now for the uninitiated, sheep farming is a complex of different modules. It includes flocking, herding, shearing, lambing and of course slaughtering. To tell you the truth, I'm sure that most of you, who are reading this, don't have any idea about sheep farming. Why? Because since you are reading it, I presume that you are online and this in turn means that you're, most probably, urban and in cities we only see sheep on a meat-shop shelf.

Herding.

Getting back to the sheep, the farmer usually has one or more human assistants known as shepherds, depending on the number of sheep in the flock. The job of the shepherd(s) is to accompany the flock to the pasture, and stay there with the sheep, usually keeping a distance between himself and the flock. This distance normally should not be so much that the shepherd won't be able to keep a visual control of the flock.

Then there are herding dogs or more commonly known as shepherd dogs. You might have heard about the German shepherd, the Scottish shepherd, the Caucasian shepherd, so on and so forth. Believe me, I myself thought until lately that German shepherd is a specially bred military dog. But now I know, why all these dogs have this suffix to their breed name.

The job of the herding dog is to, first of all, accompany the sheep to and from the pasture, and to keep a strict check that none of the sheep dare get out of the formation. During the day at the pasture the dogs keep a vigil to make sure that no sheep dare leave the grazing grounds. These dogs use the normal scare technique, which means that they bark, to make the sheep know, at all times that they are being watched. And God forbidden if any of those sheep dared try and escape the flock, the dogs have all the rights and means of chasing, scaring, and returning the sheep to the flock.

Livestock and dogs react to one another in a natural language of energy and intention that both understand. This language of energy and intention is the essence of the reason, why sheep dogs are so remarkably priceless.

You see if the farmer or the shepherd would allow the sheep to wander or to go, where they wanted to go, what would the master be left with, in a very short time? Nothing, is the answer. Or maybe, not nothing? He would be left with sick, old, and lame sheep only. The ones, who had passed into an age, where they only await the butcher's blade or death. The ones, who were left with no thoughts or independent thoughts.

You might suggest that it would be better to let those stupid sheep, with all those thoughts of system violation, go away, and stay with the lame, old, loyal sheep only. But my friends, this would shatter the system. See if there won't be any sheep to control, the dogs would lose their jobs. And the system would disintegrate under its own weight, because the master would not have any income from herding, and consequently he would not be able to feed the jobless dogs.

Every now and then, a sheep tries to escape the flock. The dogs chase, and enchain back, the sheep, as they are taught to do, and with this the dogs boost their self-esteem. Now imagine if the dogs would not have any real target, how low their self-esteem would be, in a very short time? The master or the farmer cannot just let the dogs go, because for him the dogs are not only a control tool, they are also a source of self-protection and a sign, which says: “Don't mess with me or my dogs would tear you apart”.

Logically speaking the bigger the flock that a master has, greater is the number of the dogs required by the master. So just because of some stupid sheep, who wanted to wander around, or who had a moral disagreement with the system, the master could not afford to downgrade himself.

Now, I don't mean to portray the master and his shepherds and his dogs to be very self-centred or selfish. The system that they run is very democratic. All the master asks for, is total subjugation to authority, his authority. His shepherds teach the dogs to create a boundary, always hypothetical or nonphysical, in the pasture and to guard the unseen boundaries. Inside those invisible boundaries, the sheep are free to roam and to graze, and they can graze as much as they want. The master is the master, because the master knows that there are physical limits, to what a living being can eat. Secondly, the more the sheep eat the more they payback. So being aware of that fact, he lets the sheep graze without any control. How freedom-loving is the master!

Shearing (wool).

Now that the sheep are fed and bred and the system of control keeps the flock intact, the master, with the help of his shepherds, helps the sheep make an annual payback, in the form of wool. The process of striping the sheep of the wool is called shearing.

The master says: “Sheep cannot be left to go without shearing. The wool continually grows and will become heavy, soiled and unhealthy if not annually sheared.”

How caring is the master!

Now once again, let’s look at things more objectively. The master took care of the shepherds and the dogs, all through the year, so that the latter would do their best to ensure that the sheep would live a happy life, grazing and roaming, within the boundaries, without any let or hindrance. Since the master took care of the sheep, the sheep have to take care of the master, making an annual payback. We can call it a tax. The logic is simple. Since the master made it possible for the sheep to happily live through the year, the sheep have to pay the tax to make sure that the master remains the master.

On the other hand, how Hippocratic is this system! See if there won't be any master or the shepherd or the dogs, the flock still would had grazed in the same pasture. Or maybe it would had grazed in different pastures, every day, depending on the mood of the flock. More so the stupid sheep, who did not like the flock, could had easily left it to lead a life of its own liking or even could had joined another flock. Now, what if a sheep wanted to eat at night? In the master's system, such wishes were ought to be left unattended, because no one would like to accompany a single individual to a pasture at night. I think you'd agree that disturbing the shepherd and the dogs, at night, just to fulfil the wishes of a single stray-of-thought sheep would be very unjust. So all the sheep who enjoy the freedom of the herd, reach the butcher's blade or death not even knowing, what it felt like eating in the night.

More so, look at it this way. The master does not especially arrange for pastures. Grass grows by itself, and needs no special care from the master or his dogs, but the master considers the pasture to be a natural monopoly. He thinks that had he not been around, the grass would had stopped growing.

Here comes the information or propaganda bit, to be more accurate. The master has his tools to make the sheep realize, and accept, the fact that the master was the reason for the growing of the grass. Sometimes if the master would think that there was some sort of revolt, among his sheep, he would order his sub-rulers (the shepherds and the dogs) to not take the herd to the pasture.

The masters, who had mastered the trade of propaganda, would make their sub-rulers pass on the message to the sheep (Livestock and dogs react to one another in a natural language of energy and intention that both understand) that the pasture was not safe for grazing and that the master had denied the sheep the right to eat, for the good of the sheep themselves.

The masters, who lack the techniques of propaganda, show brutal force, through the same sub-rulers. The master is sure of the fact that lack of food would kill the revolt!

Well the master is also not perfect. We normally say that nobody is perfect, so why should we criticize the master for not being perfect?

Lambing.

Well this term is self-explanatory. This is just another kind of tax. Yes it is an indirect tax. Whenever, the sheep bears a lamb it automatically helps the master in strengthening his power. Unclear? Well you remember I told you that the greater number of sheep in the flock, more was the power enjoyed by the master in the elite club of masters or farmers. The greater the number of sheep, more are the direct and indirect taxes (wool and lambs) and consequently, the wealthier the master gets. Do I need to explain that might is right?

Shearing (meat).

Now comes the ultimate. The master after striping the sheep of all the wool that they could supply, decides one fine day to ease the agony of living a boring life, for some or all of the sheep. Master is so great that he understands that following the dogs to the pasture every day, grazing day in and day out, and then following the dogs back to the ranch, can get boringly dull, for the humble sheep, and they might start to lose spirit. To help the sheep die before their spirit dies, he sends them to the butcher.

This process of supply to the butcher has two main reasons. First is as I had said the process of aging, which is more like reaching your natural death. Second is a crisis situation, where the master needs some hard cash, to get the creditors off his back, so he sends the sheep to defend his interests, offering their throats to the butcher's blade. This situation is more like war, where the master uses the sheep. See, strangely enough, it's not the ruling class, I mean the shepherds or the dogs, who sacrifice their lives for the master. It's always the herd that comes to the rescue of the master, in hard times.

Well, now after getting acquainted with the system of herding, do you have any doubt in mind that herding is the oldest profession and the corner stone of all civilized systems?

The system that we live in or the systems that we know of from recorded history, have a totally similar structure. There is always a master, a ruling class, controlling organizations and the herd (public).

As in the farming system, when you are born a sheep, you have no chance of becoming a dog, a shepherd or let alone a master. You're born a sheep and you'll always be a sheep. You'll always be the part of the flock.

Yes you cannot become a dog if you were born a sheep, but you can at least try to escape from the herd and live a life, where there was no master, no shepherd and no dog. You might lose your life in this attempt, but is it not worth living at least a moment of really happy life, outside the boundaries of the pasture?

Why do we always look at the probability of falling prey to the system? Why don't we at least try to imagine how the pastures look without the dogs?

Well, in human history, there had been people, who dreamt of real freedom. Like Tippu Sultan, one of the greatest freedom fighters, who once said: “It is worth living for only one day like a lion, then living a hundred years like a jackal.” 

The sheep are sheep not because of the species they belong to. They are sheep because it is in their mind-set. It is all about the mind-set, not about the biological inheritance. Majority, near totality, of people are caught up in the vicious circle of the system, just because they are weak enough to understand, amend and control their own mind-set. Take control of your own lives, and become your own masters!

(I am not an animal rights activist and this text has nothing to do with the protection of animal rights. But, unfortunately if you think that I am crying about sheep rights, please forget you ever read this).

All images are opensource photos. I don't know the people, who took these images and the others, but I am grateful to them all!