Maximum Violence Quotes

“Two is one; one is none.”
― Michael Stephen Fuchs, Maximum Violence

“Fick had long considered himself to be one of the sheepdogs. This was a trope that had gained currency among military, police, and other first responders and guardians of civilization during the counter-terror wars of the early twenty-first century. The idea was that the great mass of humanity had no malice in them, and were as incapable of any kind of violence as, well, sheep. There was nothing wrong with being a sheep – most of them were good, honorable, productive citizens, who worked hard and took care of their families. And they would be free to simply go on doing it if not for… the wolves. These were the tiny but powerful subset of humanity who lived to threaten, to terrorize, to rip off, and to hurt and kill the sheep. Criminals, psychos, terrorists, violent men of whatever allegiance, or of none. And the only thing blocking their culling of the sheep was… the sheepdogs. And if sheepdogs like Fick actually looked a lot like the wolves – fierce, armed, resolved, and dangerous – it was because they had to be as willing and able to use violence as the wolves were. As a result, the sheep were sometimes nearly as scared of the sheepdogs as they were of the wolves – both because they were strange and violent, and because they reminded them of the unpleasant fact that they lived in a dangerous world with wolves in it. And that they could only go about their lives safely under the watchful eyes and guns of the sheepdogs. But the difference between the wolves and the sheepdogs was stark: while the wolves had no empathy for anyone, the sheepdogs liked people – had in fact pledged their lives to protect them. Even if they sometimes got little in the way of thanks.”
― Glynn James, Maximum Violence

“because they reminded them of the unpleasant fact that they lived in a dangerous world with wolves in it. And that they could only go about their lives safely under the watchful eyes and guns of the sheepdogs.”
― Michael Stephen Fuchs, Maximum Violence