Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers )

Hey!  Look who’s back in town*!

Mel Thompson creator of 'the Spautula in the Wilderness' and 'Mostly Teachable' wearing his Wakefield Doctrine hat (on his damn head)

I was out one day a few weeks ago,  surfing through certain areas of the internet,  I think I was  ‘following-back’  a twitter or a tweet or whatever the hell you call it and I came to a blogsite with an unusual name:  Mostly Teachable.
This was a little site with a very simple layout, consisting of a Title (with comic icon) a  Post and a ‘byline’. Intrigued I read the Post and thought to myself, ‘good stuff’.  After reading the Post, I glanced at the byline by  Mel Thompson!
As Readers of the Wakefield Doctrine may recall, Mel retired ‘the Spatula’ last Spring in order to pursue other priorities (mostly involving running through the streets of “Michigan” and otherwise focusing efforts on job/career concerns).  While we all applauded Mel’s running ambitions ( in particular the 22,880 yard dash!) we all hated to see  the Spatula close down.

Well, good news to start the New Year!

We welcome Mel (and Mostly Teachable ) back to the Wakefield Doctrine blogroll. This new blog is definitely a good place to go for a relaxing read after a long day of swatting misbehaving scotts with a rolled-up newspaper or after getting out the broom to chase those annoying  rogers off the back lawn!

Speaking of this weekend’s Wakefield Doctrine Saturday Night Drive, another good one! In attendance: DS#1, DownSpring glenn and Molly ( Ms. AKH was unable to attend…something about an issue of…better just go read her latest Post).
For you new Readers, the fun about the Saturday Drive starts with the weather! Since DS#1 and Molly were calling in from widely divergent geographical locations ( from somewhere warm and from one of those big square States out West , respectively). We covered the very wide range of topics that we usually do, of note this Saturday was a telling discussion on dreams, dream interpretation and the Wakefield Doctrine. From there we went to an argument over the question of musicals as a form of entertainment (and whether or not glenn should be embarrassed by his total enthusiasm for the genre.) Finally we talked about several side projects of DS1’s and Molly’s.

In the course of the Drive, the topic of scott-clark relationships briefly rose to topic-level. So to make this a totally, well-rounded Monday Morning Post, following is a brief, talking-point-ish discussion of one of (the many) interesting aspects of the clark-scott relationship.

It is well established that clarks and scotts get along very well, the clark-scott relationship has a dynamic and an excitement level that is very satisfying to both (clark and scott). There is, however, an interesting phenomenon that often shows up (in this particular pairing) that is illustrative of both the nature of clarks and the nature of scotts.  Most of the time and for the most part, clarks tend to be a pretty passive bunch. As ‘Outsiders’, clarks look to get along with everyone, avoiding conflict and confrontation at all costs. The clark is looking to simply blend into the crowd, not stand out.  The problem with (this approach) is twofold: a) there is always conflict and 2) clarks, despite outward appearances, are really very aggressive people. It is just that clarks, for the most part, don’t see sufficient reason in day to day life to go to the trouble of being aggressive.

One of the reasons that the clark scott relationship works so well is that while scotts are naturally aggressive and will always seek to establish dominance/ranking with everyone they meet, clarks basically don’t care. They don’t care about ranking, in that clarks are comfortable being passive most of the time which works out because scotts do care (about ranking). The problem arises when the clark encounters something that rouses their aggressive side. It may be a person or an an idea or a project, but it will make a clark care and therefore become protective and possessive. The scott (in the relationship of this example) usually does not see the difference until something causes the clark to exert themselves. The clark will stop being passive and become aggressive, usually having the effect of forcing the scott to see that the ranking that they thought existed, no longer applies. This is a problem more for the scott than for the clark. Ranking is everything to the scott, and it is not sufficient to know that they are dominant over another pack member, they (the scott) must know that there is someone dominant/superior to them in the pack. While clarks can be very dominant/aggressive, they do not have an instinct to establish a ranking position in a pack structure, and so the scott is left in the position of knowing they should be aggressive but not knowing where the boundaries are, relative to their relationships.

So stop by and see Mel…be sure to say Hidy!

* not literally town**

** more a place***

*** a place in the sense of a location in the blogsphere