(“…jeez he was being such a roger“)

(“we’re not being too scottian, are we?”)

(“…it really is a simple decision, how clarklike are you going to be about this?”)

You might be thinking out loud, or mis-overhearing a passing conversation, but it is hard to deny that the world we find ourselves in today (and then again, maybe tomorrow) is so very easy to alter.  And when I say alter, I don’t mean it in the ‘to try and make other people do things differently’ way, and I am not suggesting that we would instruct the people we work with and play with to behave in an unfamiliar manner and I most assuredly do not mean that we should take our friends aside and tell them that there are certain things we want them to do differently from now on…

(Secret-Sharing time now), everyone is trying to change the world. All the time and everywhere,  people are inviting us to join them in decorating (and re-decorating) the world according to their tastes.  What is funny is that even though a statement like the one just made, if manifested in a different circumstance, say, for instance,  a shopper waiting in a checkout line, grabs the microphone and  announces to everyone in the local supermarket, that the world was changing, and they were the agency, now that that would be strange.  What really should be considered odd is how you can read this Post and be thinking. ‘OK, interesting idea, I wonder where they are going with this alter the world thing.’

(“the herd is restless, the gossip is rampant, how rogerian can an office break room be?”)

We are born and (most of us) raised by others, others who help us through the world until we are able to survive alone. No one would reject the notion that, as we are taught to live and act in the world, we are also taught what the world is like.  (Nothing  aluminum foil hat-wearing  crazy),  just:  “listen to your mother… when I was your age, I had to go without all the things you take for granted”;
                                                          “no hold my hand when we cross the street, look both ways…if anyone stops the car and offers you a ride…”;          “if you are too sick to go to school, you are too sick to go out and play in the afternoon…study because to get into college you will need good grades…how can you expect to get a good job if you don’t have good education”

And it is not just telling us what the world is like, no, they are telling us what people are like:     “never talk to strangers… the early immigrants worked really hard to establish themselves… what kind of accent is that?”
                                  “a nice girl simply does not act like that… first impressions are the most important thing…respect your elders…honor you father”
                                            “do unto others as you would have them do unto you…early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise…when a man loves a woman…”

Most importantly, those who teach us about the world tell us about ourselves:    “don’t put that in your mouth, you don’t know where it has been…you are so much like your father…don’t feel bad when people say you look like me”;
                       “you will never amount to anything…how can you do that, after all we have done for you…if you don’t respect yourself  how do you expect others to respect you…a good wife’s first duty is to the family”
                                        “don’t be afraid…god loves you…you can’t believe everything you see and hear”

And so we practise living in the world and the more we practice, the more our beliefs are reinforced and the more ‘unchangeable’ everything becomes.

Here at the Wakefield Doctrine we say:   “hey you know how rogerian the spirit of organised religion is?… be careful young lady, you know how scotts can be, he is after only one thing…hey, if you have insomnia, you can always hang out with that clarklike friend of yours…that roger is such a girl”

Altering the world is not really such a radical concept. Simply a matter of adding to your description of the world. A language, a way of seeing what is already there in a new and better way… that is what the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers really is, a view of the world that we can benefit from. (Sure thing,    clark).