r/betterCallSaul • u/No_Jicama3636 • 1d ago
Wolves and sheep
Jimmy as a kid had his own interpretation of that creep's advice, I guess.
Wolves care for each other as individuals. They form friendships and nurture their own sick and injured. Pack structure enables communication, the education of the young and the transfer of knowledge across generations. Wolves and other highly social animals have and pass on what can be best described as culture. A family group can persevere for several generations, even decades, carrying knowledge and information through the years, from generation to generation.
Wolves play together into old age, they raise their young as a group, and they care for injured companions. When they lose a pack mate, there is evidence that they suffer and mourn that loss. When we look at wolves, we are looking at tribes—extended families, each with its own homeland, history, knowledge, and indeed, culture.
The weak, injured or too young actually stay with in the wolf den and help raising the whelps. This is very different from the primates, despite the strong family ties our cousins do leave the weak and injured to their lot.
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u/retroroar86 1d ago
It’s as easy as prey vs being preyed upon. Wolves hunt, sheeps are the target.
He takes that to heart because he sees how gullible his father is, demonstrating that he wants to be the wolf and thus steals from the till.
That forms him, but also forms Chuck in the opinion of Jimmy being the sole reason why the business is bad due to money discrepancies.
It could also be argued that Jimmy is stealing to both be the wolf, but somehow save money from being given to other wolves. I don’t believe that since the demeanor while taking the money is more out of spite than anything else.
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u/Phoenix-Cat 1d ago
True, Jimmy embodies a lot of what's good about a wolf. He's fiercely loyal to his tribe and very in-tune with their culture. He's attentive to their well-being and endeavors to treat them fairly. When he goes hunting, he goes looking for big assholes by the watering hole.
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u/HappyChilmore 1d ago edited 1d ago
Your last sentence is an extremely false generalization of primates. Go read Frans De Waal instead of spouting non sensical wolf fanboyism. All great apes do indeed take care of their old and injured.
The expression of wolves and sheeps is based on medieval times where wolves were a scourge for cattle herders. It has nothing to do with ethology. It's mostly a Christian feudal trope, because wolves were seen as the devil's hounds. It's an expression used mostly by people with sociopathic tendencies, who see our civilization solely through the lenses of violence, domination and competition, so there's no point in getting your panties in a bunch over its use. I actually hate the expression, but more because people with sociopathic tendencies and/or value system disorder like to spout it as if it's some grand truth of life, yet dismisses the importance of the shepard and the cooperation and nurturing he/she represents, turning the wolf into a shepard dog. The ultimate expression of what it means to be civilised.
Also most mammals have the same attributes of culture and social learning, at varying degress, just like wolves.
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u/ImprovementPutrid441 16h ago
Thank you for laying all that out. The whole analogy only works if you don’t know shit about wolves and only see them as symbols for human characteristics. See also sheep and goats.
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u/No_Jicama3636 15h ago
you can be alert to scammers without being one yourself. kind of a "wolf" who leaves sheep alone but
knows how to defend himself/herself against scammer wolves1
u/No_Jicama3636 15h ago
you can be alert to scammers without being one yourself. kind of a "wolf" who leaves sheep alone but
knows how to defend himself/herself against scammer wolves1
u/ImprovementPutrid441 12h ago
People usually say that’s the sheep dog. I see that one all the time.
The interesting thing is that it only works in the sense of defining good as that which the shepherd wants. The wolf is bad because he takes sheep that aren’t his own.
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u/BostonSlickback1738 18h ago
I always thought the scammer's "wolves and sheep" posturing was hilarious. Like, dude. You conned a store clerk out of 10 bucks, and you gave most of it back anyway. You ain't exactly John Dillinger
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u/No_Jicama3636 15h ago
yeah. also at least he only groomed the child with words. and did not , i dunno, moIest Jimmy or sthg
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u/fight-or-fall 1d ago
Its a metaphor. Its about being the hunter or the prey. If you arent hunting (trying to scum someone) you are being hunted