“Julie” (her real name) has given me permission to post her very insightful private email to me today re: the use of the word “sheeple,” and how it demeans suffering humanity. Thank you so much for calling me to attention here, Julie. Is there another term that would be more suitable to describe those who are still, in some sense, caught in the matrix? Any suggestions appreciated. I especially recognize Julie’s empathy with those who are just barely scraping money and energy together to help their families survive in an increasingly chaotic world that feels so uncaring, until we stop, and listen to our hearts, and know how they all yearn for connection, no matter how masked the longing.

And yes, Julie has agreed — hopefully! — to meet with me at the NAPC in Minnesota this weekend. I hear today that 400 permaculturists will be in attendance. Whew! What a blessing!

Hi Ann,

Thank you for your blog, and your often astonishingly brave insights. I check in daily, and am deeply appreciative of your gift of time and energy to us.

There is one thing that bothers me when I read insightful blogs such as yours, and that is the use of the word “sheeple”. To me, it’s a nasty word – disrespectful, dismissive, derisive, and dehumanizing, and lacking in compassion (finally, not a “d” word!).

I understand the concept behind it, but just consider for a moment the person who is not stupid and unaware, just bone-weary, and stuck in the matrix trying to do the best they can. They wake up, get the kids ready, go to work at a low-paying job, do 4 errands on lunch break, shop for over-priced, over-processed food after work, come home to under-natured, overactive kids, make dinner, volunteer at church, get the kids to bed, try to prioritize the bills, and then conscientiously watch the news before dropping, exhausted, into a restless sleep.

That’s just normal.

But add in the relentless programming, the altered and chemical-laden food, ubiquitous wi-fi, after-effects of vaccinations given in childhood, pharmaceuticals that inject cell-altering who-knows-what, the constant bombardment of chemtrails, flouridated and drug-filled city water – just to name a few things – and it becomes almost impossible to have a thought that hasn’t been manipulated.

I don’t know how some of us have broken free, or are trying, at least, to break free from the programming. It takes and extraordinary amount of time and effort to change a thought, to do the research, to wade through the BS to find alternative media sources. Only to slog through it and realize that it, too, is riddled with polarity, entrenchment, sleight-of-hand, and outright dis-info. It’s a mighty effort to come back to autonomy, to learn to trust self, and maintain the strength to land on the truth.

Given all that, calling people “sheeple” seems akin to blaming the victim, and I think we’ve all had enough of that.

So I ask you to please reconsider that term. Perhaps we can come up with another one that is less diminishing and more hopeful. Unawakened? Pre-neophyte? There must be something that adequately and compassionately captures the myriad battered human hearts and psyches living in such a viciously diabolical matrix.

Thank you for your consideration.

On a different note, I will be at the NAPC this weekend. It would be an honor to meet you, so I will look for you and, if feeling brave, come up and say hello.

All the best to you, and safe travels,
Julie