Many people think sheep are easily led. However, the invention of barbed wire has almost entirely eliminated the need for shepherding and even rendered the sheep dog’s important job to the pages of history. Shepherding sheep is almost certainly more difficult and challenging than modern people think it is. Is there wisdom in thinking that comparing people to sheep two thousand years ago, was a lot less insulting and much more informative than it is today?

We would certainly agree this is so. People of the era all had firsthand experience doing farm work of that kind and being quite aware that animals, even with a herd instinct, have a mind of their own and can wander off by themselves and get into trouble or be picked off by predators more readily when they are somewhat isolated, and particularly when there is not a commanding presence of a shepherd or a sheepdog on patrol. People of that era would certainly have observed these forces in action and appreciated the importance of having control of things and appreciating that herding sheep is an ongoing challenge and a demanding one requiring vigilance, discipline, and a skillset. So it will not be as appreciated by today’s human in the same way because their personal experience is too removed from the reality of that circumstance. But as a metaphor, the idea of people being sheeplike is still relevant in the sense that it represents being herded, being maneuvered through a manipulation of some kind that has a larger say in what they do and where they go, and that fits your world to a tee because all of the workings of society are manipulated directly or indirectly by the interlopers and your freedom is nothing but an illusion. You are all being herded. Like sheep, you might be able to maneuver to the front of the pack or the rear of the pack, but you will be herded nonetheless and there are constraints on what you will be allowed to do, and those constraints will be quite real and heavily enforced and may even result in lethal force being brought to bear if you push the boundaries too greatly to test those limits.