> Maybe you and I actually can't "handle the truth", as the Nicholson line goes This comment is entirely about the examples/analogies. Note that different peo

> Maybe you and I actually can't "handle the truth", as the Nicholson line goes This comment is entirely about the examples/analogies. Note that different people interpret that character’s line differently. Some people agree with the character that strict rules and discipline and walls and tough characters are needed to maintain the peace (“the sheepdog protects the sheep against the wolves” analogy that is common in police/military circles). I personally see that character as having a god complex. In the movie, he walked around with an entourage of sycophants and enablers, he lied to investigators, he created a crime by telling subordinates to “handle” the whistleblower, he arranged for the crime to be covered up by altering logs at the airport, and he chose to withhold his actions from the military court until his ego was challenged. Every time that “you can’t handle the truth” scene is invoked around policing, it is the perfect example to confirm my bias against people who would choose to give sheepdogs all of the power they demand. And the analogy of sheep/sheepdog is an interesting tell because sheep are very far removed species from sheepdogs, but sheepdogs and wolves are the same family if not the same species. The only thing that differentiates a sheepdog from a wolf is action. If the sheepdog starts to selectively act like a wolf “to keep order”, then they are closer to a wolf than a sheepdog.