the Case of the Missing rogers: Chapter II ‘the Mystery of the Herd’ | the Wakefield Doctrine the Case of the Missing rogers: Chapter II ‘the Mystery of the Herd’ | the Wakefield Doctrine

the Case of the Missing rogers: Chapter II ‘the Mystery of the Herd’

Welcome*

 

…we know now ( if you read yesterday’s Post, you know now ) the relationship between rogers and scotts is a very… intimate pairing. While it is easy to mistake the roger’s as ‘victim’ to the scott’s predation, we know that this is totally not the case. ( New Readers!  Go and listen to DownSpring Phyllis in Episode 13 of Video Friday), rather it is obvious that there is very much a symbiotic relationship binding1 your rogers and scotts.  The Wakefield Doctrine is gender neutral, however it is often where gender is the central feature, that we can see the relationship between these two personality types in highest contrast. We all know a couple** where the guy is a roger and girl is a scott. He is always pretty and she is always sexy. He is always socially adept and she is socially aggressive. It is when these two are observed tant qu’ensemble,  do we see the interplay of each personality type.  With a roger/scott couple,  it is the scott who is quick with the jokes about (the roger), ” oh yeah,  you should have seen roger on our honeymoon! he was so nervous”  (this kind of comment actually serves two purposes: a) make fun of the roger for the amusement of the surrounding group and b) (serve) as bait to entice any rogers listening to the story). The roger, in this situation, laughs comfortably and watches the reaction of the female members of their ‘audience’.  Think:  Bill and Hillary Clinton  or  (for you older Readers), Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton   …hell, lets throw in  Bobby Brown and Whitney Houston!  
In any event, you will find ‘this couple’  in most social gatherings where attendance of ‘couples’ is appropriate. It needs to be said that this type of relationship ( roger/scott) is by no means exclusive to ‘couples’ in the romantic sense; anywhere there are people interacting, you will find the dynamic described here.  And, as Phyllis points out in her Video interview, the roger is not truly the passive partner. (From the rogerian perspective), the seemingly passive one is ‘leading from behind’  and reining in the scott, particularly in the public/social situations that we are using to illustrate the two personality types.

While the roger-scott relationship is relatively easy ( if not kind of…racydynamic… “ewww, I can’t believe she said that“…) to understand, what of the roger-clark relationship?

Before we continue with our discussion, a quick note!  You know how we have been accused of… making up words,  (neologisms, to get rogerian on it) for our own enjoyment?  ( No?  well we do! ) Real made up words, not rogerian expressions,  anyway with Molly’s help we went and sent in a word to the Urban Dictionary just last evening. While not up to the sublime, subtly-nuanced standards found with most of the entries there, we are beginning to spread more and more into the ‘real world’.  Thanks Molly!

The roger-clark relationship is much more stable, less wildly dynamic than is the roger-scott relationship. As the ‘active’ partner in a roger-scott relationship is usually the scott, the roger plays the more active role in the roger-clark couple. This is attributable more to the patience of the clark than (to) the aggressiveness of the roger.  Lets just say that in the ‘natural’ relationship between rogers and clarks

rogers are to clarks as:

  • a diploma is to an education
  • (the) record to the needle
  • the ocean to the tide
  • Thanksgiving is to Christmas

(As with yesterday’s Post, here is where we will relate an anecdote to serve as an illustration of some part of this Post.  So I was talking to the Progenitor roger just the other day, the conversation was great fun, ranging an incredible variety of topics. This is as much evidence of the rogerian skill at story-telling, as it is proof of a clarks  ability to adapt to nearly any situation.  In any event, roger and I were talking and the topic came around to either:  a)dinner, b)body weight or c) both a & b, at which point,  roger made the statement, ” of course, you would be eating tuna casserole…” 
Now this statement should not mean anything to you (the Reader) however, what makes it so atypical of rogers is that at one time in the past (say …20 years ago) I was on a tuna casserole diet. Great meal, tuna…noodles…good hot or cold…perfect food! Being a clark, I could (and did) eat tuna casserole for every meal. The point of this story is that roger mentioned this…menu choice, as if it were (still) true. What is remarkable about the sentence that he made was not that it was no longer true, rather that he made the statement with such certainty and conviction that, for a second, I could almost smell tuna casserole. rogers do that, they maintain a (certain) worldview that they have decided is accurate, the passage of time (in this case, 20 years) has zero effect on how true the roger will hold their statement to be…
This capability is at heart of the rogerian need to: preserve, to maintain tradition, to support their view of the world as lasting and consistent. This is perhaps the  reason that rogers are such effective story-tellers…they maybe be relating a tale, one that they totally make up, but when they tell it, it is ‘true’. The listener feels this (rogerian) conviction that the story is true, it must be simply because (the roger) remembers it so…)

  • musical technique is to creativity
  • machine operator is to a Teacher

Well that wraps up Chapter II.  Be sure to stay for the Video  (  isn’t George just so….dreamy??! )

1) lol…ask a scott

* the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers

** we mean it about gender neutral…the term ‘couple’ is not limited to simple heterosexual pairs… can include any relationship, sexual and/or friendship-based

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clarkscottroger About clarkscottroger
Well, what exactly do you want to know? Whether I am a clark or a scott or roger? If you have to ask, then you need to keep reading the Posts for two reasons: a)to get a clear enough understanding to be able to make the determination of which type I am and 2) to realize that by definition I am all three.* *which is true for you as well, all three...but mostly one

Comments

  1. Downspring#1 says:

    …..this, the very same George that gave us Listen Without Prejudice…..damn, the Wham is rather catchy, eh? Makes you want to bounce through the morning……L-O-L-O-L-O…..

    Excellent point about clarks and their rogers with regards to patience. It is a wondrous day when a clark wakes up and realizes they do not need to have such patience with rogers (or scotts for that matter). There is always a risk involved, yet it is imperative that clarks ignore the obligatory, ever present “fear”. Sure, there will be situations/relationships put in jeopardy or won’t survive as a result of a clark refusing to “indulge” a roger but…..if the focal point be one’s own (damn) self, then the onus will be on the roger (to fuck things up). Everyone is aware that clarks are all so polite (and all). They see every situation 360 degrees x infinity but often fail to take responsibility for such because of their fear of (insert: ___________).
    clarks fail all too often at putting a stop to a roger’s indulgance (rogers know this instinctively about clarks and they like it that way.) Why? Because rogers do not like change. As keepers of tradition, the preservasionists of things/institutions as they “should” be now and forever amen, rogers need to maintain a status quo. It represents stability. They are the true conservatives.
    As noted in this post, rogers “rely” on scotts for a certain and dependable sustenance – just as they rely on clarks to not rock the boat. But then came this damned Wakefield Doctrine, daring clarks to not just rock the boat but cause it to capsize so they can go and get a bigger boat……
    Whatever…..

  2. Molly Molly M. says:

    Tuna casserole always makes me thing of Lake Wobegon…

    I know I have seen the roger-scott relationship before… but the roger-clark? I’m still trying to visualize that.

  3. clarkscottroger clarkscottroger says:

    (it might make it easier if you think: clark-roger )

    At the parties and social functions, the roger will be the center of attention wherever this ‘couple’ find themselves.
    The roger is always charming and the clark is always discerning, the roger is loquacious and the clark is supportive….the roger will have fun and the clark will be (watching out for the interests of the roger).

    Does that help? lol

  4. Molly Molly M. says:

    Okay… that makes more sense to me. I often find myself in that kind of situation, but usually with another clark, who thinks they *have* to be outgoing because it is a social situation. o.O

  5. RCoyne RCoyne says:

    Tuna casserole at the Chatterbox Cafe…sounds right to me.
    Does anyone remember an old Spatula post about an emergency where his dad was running out of Cream of Mushroom soup? He was down to fifty or sixty cans… I for one miss the Spatula real bad. Anyone up for a ” Bring back the Spatula ” rally?