the Wakefield Doctrine

Well…..

That certainly was different…perhaps a way of ‘letting off steam’ or even just having fun, nothing says this blog has to be all serious.  But our task remains, the goal of this blog remains ever the same:  to present the Wakefield Doctrine (aka the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) in a way that is easy to understand and allows you, the Reader, to apply (it’s) principles to your daily life.

I believe it was in the (…you do not want to look down) Post…we said that we will be focusing on each of the three types, one Post for each.  First up: clarks.

To begin, this Post will not be about clarks in the sense of what they are, or how to spot them or even (their) characteristics.  This Post is concerned with clarks from the perspective of how they relate to this Wakefield Doctrine thing.  A clark reading this blog will be curious and will read much of the material, but they will do this in order to compare what the Doctrine is to the system they already have in place.  Information is the central feature in the world of the clarks.

(A little dry, but then we are talking about clarks…) but stay with us here. This Post and the two to follow will be of value to us in answering the question:  ‘how do I get through to a clark (or a scott or a roger)?’
Put another way, spotting a roger or a scott or a clark is pretty simple.  But, ‘speaking the language’ of these three types of people is not so simple.

Our challenge is to learn to communicate with the other(s) in their language, on their terms.
A clark talking to a scott will sound like a clark (to that scott).  But it is possible for that clark to speak to the scott in the ‘scottian language’.
Of course, we are not talking about ‘languages’ in the everyday sense and it is more  about being able to perceive reality as the other does.
If you can do that, you will automatically speak their language.

Lets try this:  you’re a clark (come back scott, come back  lol), you are standing in a room full of people at some social function.  Being a clark,  you are standing in a corner and you are looking around and listening to everyone,  trying to learn what is expected of you.  Into the room comes a scott, who immediately begins to ‘work the room’, going from person to person, establishing ranking and locating food.  This scott does not need to learn (what is expected of them), they simply need to act.  To survive.
If you, (a clark) goes up to this scott and offers information, you will be identified as a clark.  To the scottian brain:  you are not a competitor and you are not food.  The scott will be cautious, until you are identified to the scotts satisfaction)

But, suppose for a minute, you could speak scottian, the language of a scott. What do you suppose the difference would be?
You would not be offering information, for a start.  And you would not be trying co-operate with this (scott).  You would simply communicate with the scott directly.
(Now, the clarks out there reading this are leaping ahead of this little example…the implications of switching perspective to that of the other….hold up clarkies…lets try to bring along the rogers and scotts…they are not running out ahead on this one…)

So you go up to the scott and first and foremost demand their attention.  You become a scott.
Damn.

Let’s just put it this way:  the Wakefield Doctrine can provide you with enough information/perspective/encouragement to enable you to perceive the world as the other two types do and, by doing this, you will be able to communicate with them more effectively.  Totally.

Of course, if you do this you may find that the message that you are trying to convey to the other person is changed by the fact that you are seeing the world differently.  But that is a Post length topic in and of itself.  In the following Posts we will consider this changing of the message effect that comes when we see the world through the eyes of another.  This will be most difficult to the scotts and the rogers, but hey if this were easy I would be on TV by now.

Lets finish with a little (more) music.

“Good Morning  class”
(damn,they are so young…relax…remember, clark, this is a made up premise in an imaginary class in a Post of a 6 month old blog…nothing bad will happen…you can’t screw this up…)    

“How are you all you doin today?”
(doin? did you just say doin?  wtf are you thinking?  ok ok, don’t panic! this can still be saved)    

“Thank  you, Teacher for inviting me today.  You won’t be staying?  Teacher conference?  Oh, okay guess we’ll be alright here…How long is this class?  50 minutes?  No,  should be plenty of time.  Sure, you can close the door.  See you in an hour.”
(oh great…an hour in front of these kids, no other adult to shift attention to…what if they decide not to listen?  Goddamn why did I let that rogerian Teacher personage goad me into this, this fuckin sucks…screw this premise…I don’t have to do this, let him try and exert an influence on the path of the Doctrine on his own, let’s see how many Posts a week he gets out with nothing but a white screen and a classroom full of imaginary characters…)
(…still here…shit  well might as well do something…)    

“Well class, I understand you are studying the Wakefield Doctrine…(jesus christ!!!) er,,,  I am told by the Teacher that you are very adept  at the Doctrine.”    

“Allow me to begin:  the Wakefield Doctrine is a way of understanding the behavior of those around us and is unique in that it is based on how a person perceives the world.  We consider this the starting point rather than trying to catalog behavior”…(you’re losing them!! lose them?  when the hell did you have them…you practised this, you know that you must engage the class first…otherwise you might as well talk to a wall)…” and not simply list behavior…blah, blah blah”    

“Yes? you in back?  Yes, I did say ‘blah, blah, blah’.
“From this seating chart Teacher gave me you must be Jimmy.  Yes, I would agree, Teacher would have a chart of who is sitting where.  No, I don’t see a Ms. AKH anywhere…student teacher?  Sure Jimmy  they would both be at the Teacher’s Lounge… then that would make the young lady in front of you Miss Janie Sullivan, no?  What?…no,  I am comfortable with addressing you as Miss Sullivan…What?…very good!  I am very clarklike.  I can see why Teacher speaks so highly of you…”    

“…the young lady next to you, Miss Sullivan, the one with the scarf and the hat and the bandana on…I saw you start to raise your hand…you have a question?…(no Jimmy I am sure she can answer for herself)…Britney is it?  what was your question…”Why?,  why what?  Miss Chambers… why the Doctrine?  or why am I here?”    

“One answer might be because I am the leading expert  on the Wakefield Doctrine…not buying that?  Nah, neither would I…a set up?  how very astute Miss Sullivan!”  And you, Britney, why do you agree that this is all a set up?  no Jimmy, let Britney answer…yes Britney…because that is what I would expect?  (lol)  very good.
You are all rather good at this Doctrine  thing, you know that?  Yes Miss…Janie  I don’t think Teacher quite ‘gets’ you, but you will just have to give him time to come to believe that this is all not so weird…enough Jimmy…Mr. Miller is the one you need to watch, not Teacher…”    

“Hey!..the hell with this premise…is that an empty seat between you and Britney?  good…then I am going to…let me just get some tape…and this picture I’m going to tape to the blackboard….right about….here…    

...clark...scott...roger

“Let me join you students…no, we will not be telling the Teacher…but the heck with the lecture..I’m just going to sit back here and we can throw questions at those three up in the front…ok?  No, Janie this will not affect your final grade for the class…well…because I wrote the material that you are studying…
…yes I am that one…older in the picture?  why thank you Britney…”    

“So, since we need to say we covered the Doctrine this hour, anyone have any questions that you couldn’t get an answer from Teacher on? or were afraid to ask? No?  here the let me start…”
             ‘hey! clark-on-the-blackboard’,  didn’t you think there was a reason that you always had the same two friends, despite how much of an asshole you thought you really were?  huh?’ 
“(lol) no, Janie  the clarks have that as their fundamental premise…they know they are awful and if they can only get through the day without anyone finding out then it is a good day…really  ask your friend Britney…”
“What’s that Britney?  sure  go ahead ask the three ‘wise men’…”
               ‘hey Wakefield dudes, why did it take the weakest of the three of you to keep at this thing long enough to become a blog…did you never think that you were not interdependent?’  (good one Miss Chambers,  lol)”
(ok, clark  slow it down  you are getting a little lost in character…make a point that all of your 25 Readers can take from this very odd Post…something they can’t ignore)     

“Hey guys.  I got to go…no this will be our little secret…you all know Doctrine well enough to fake it when Teacher comes back and asks about the ‘Lecture’…Janie?  he really admires you but is afraid you will turn out to be scottian…Jimmy, you he knows is a scott, (lol)…Britney…yes this is a bit like the Wizard of Oz…Britney you know the answer…you can see that as much as he needs to believe it, Teacher is afraid of being left behind in a herd that he has evolved beyond.  No, he would never admit it, especially to you as a clark…rogers need the dumb parishioners to shepherd to the Promised Land and to protect from Sin…they can only feel better in contrast” .   

“No, you guys will do alright…Janie?  Ms. AKH was a lot like you when she was a student like…yes I knew her then…no!  Jimmy, that is so scottian of you to say…why the girls like you so much is a depressing validation to the social biologist…”    

“Hey, that Custodian that went by…is that old Mr. B.?  damn, I haven’t seen him since I can’t remember…very good Britney he is a roger…the first roger in a sense  too bad the call of the scott drowned out his higher brain function…what might have been?  fuck that…what it is is all that it is, kids….(lol) please don’t repeat that Janie..”    

“Does he still have videos and things?  Sure Janie, ask him to help us fill that last 6 minutes of the class and I’ll just slip on out that door…”    

     All right, you people, let’s settle down now…It’s been a long break, and we’ve got a ton of new material to cover. I had to notice that no one turned in their ” The Office” home work as requested. ( The Answer I was hoping for? They’re all Rogers!)

     Okay. Today is very special. Today is freaking huge. We have a guest speaker. Or should I say, Guest Speaker. So get out the No.2’s and notebooks, take good notes, and submit your questions and comments in the appropriate place.  Please remember that this is an open forum, and decorum is much appreciated. Our guest’s text will appear as the entire uninterrupted body of the next post. What I’m doing here is generally referred to as ” setting up”. Deemed necessary, because this is a bit of an unusual situation. You’ll see why momentarily.

     We all know him in one regard or another. Downsprings have known him for eons. Acolytes are just getting started, and might be just a bit intimidated. He’s either poking, cajoling, prodding, editing, or selling you a damn hat for your damn head. Putting fires out. Or starting them. Whatever  ” the Doctrine” seems to require.  That’s all quite normal in this day and age.

     There’s one thing, though, that would be way,way out of the box. Way out of the comfort zone. He’s the only person I know with the personal courage to go directly into an excruciatingly uncomfortable spot in spite of himself. Be assured, you would not see either a Roger or a Scott do this.

     The Clark…Unplugged.  Actually, take out the ” The “, too. 

     So… we have Clark. In the “first person”. That is to say, without the affectation of being a blog editor, fake school principal, street interviewer, SL avatar, hat salesman….none of that.  Just the guy who started this thing. ( And for the historical record, this ” thing” dates back to about March of 1975; park bench, Wakefield RI. I know; I was on the other end of that bench.) The damn bench remains; so does the damn doctrine. So get your damn hat on your damn head and check this out….

     Of course you’re still writing. Why in the world would you stop?  New readers, new acolytes, new venues… all truly and genuinely phenomenal progress. This has come many light-years from the park bench by the tennis courts, across from the Old Mountain field….and now, thrown as many light-years into the future, we are in a universe where the progressive musings of the Clark are changing people’s lives.

     No need to panic. Where the historic Clark would be long gone, it turns out that the new (est) Digital Clark is actually quite good at this. Posts still have a healthy dose of gut-wrenching Clarkian angst, but overall are longer, more smoothly composed and less abstract. People are getting it. Turns out that you don’t need a secret treble booster in the wah pedal; just turn the sucker up and fly with it. It works, that’s been proven; now just let it do so.

     As for me… not entirely sure. I just haven’t had anything worth offering lately. And I haven’t an editing schedule to keep, thank God. I have found myself noodling about with a bit of a ” new radical” concept of late. I just need a bit more to go on before allowing the idea to advance. Right now it feels much like the ending of  ” the Sixth Sense”, and somebody around here is Bruce Willis… now that’s cryptic. Can’t say anything more without some good solid forensic and detective work. Just wish I actually knew how to do good solid forensic and detective work. Oh, well. I’ll just have to push on anyway. Will check in when I’ve got anything of interest.

So, what shall we talk about? This is (or will be) a Sunday Post, which is a nice alternative to the dreary Sunday newspapers.(1)

Being the Wakefield Doctrine (aka the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) we will talk about the Doctrine but we try to put it into terms that are accessible and enjoyable(2) in the hopes of the benefits of this fine system being made useful to you, the Readers(3).

So…..no, don’t worry. Nothing too weird for this Post.  In fact, I suspect some you might be wondering to yourself (or perhaps to the children as you read them this Post, if as a bedtime story), “Well, Mr. (non)Specific Narrator, why is it that you try with each Post to come up with a different approach/theme/gimmick/hook?”  Well, that is a legitimate question, Mr. (pre)Supposed Reader. Why? You asking me (4)? There is a simple answer(actually 2 simple answers). One) because I want to engage the Reading in a ‘conversation’ about the Doctrine and it’s principles and applications and 2) I find that I enjoy the process of coming up with Posts*

So, I write.
So, you** read.

*(I really should qualify the use of the word ‘enjoy’. In my use of the terms I intend to denote a range of emotion extending from a feeling of quiet elation as the result of a well-received/perceived Post to abject despondency when confronted with an idea that while exciting when first occurring, plummets into a state that is best expressed as: where the fuck is the delete button on this thing, the hell with the whole blog/blogsphere/hell, the whole internet.)

**(‘

Shit…

…how about me?

Shit… ok I give up.  You are going to have to endure one of those ‘tortured writer’s’ Post.  Sorry, not meaning it the way it seems to look/sound.
Heres the thing.  Still working with the belief that ‘new content is king’ and that the ever hungry god google wants, demands, requires new content or this blog will be cast aside as casually as…as..(see? nothin is working).  I have a goal of a new content level set at a minimum of 3 Posts a week.  Three Posts that will say something about the Doctrine and will encourage our regular Readership to come back.   And hopefully, hook-in the occasional new Reader.  Fine goal.

But we are reaching the point (probably no different from every/any other blog in the world) where the low hanging fruit is gone and it is necessary to somehow step up to the next level.  I sense that threshold, I even have an inner confidence that I will find the way to get over the next hurdle because this thing of ours will not stop until I hear a totally un-related person (with no direct connection to this blog), (like on TV or other media) say something like: ‘how scottian is that’, or ‘he is such a roger’. Then and only then I can stop doing these Posts.  Unfortunately, that time is not here so there will be Posts like this, which require that most favorite thing of( any clark) and that is, ‘getting personal/writing stuff that might not be as clever as I would like’.

Well, that’s what we have today, so let’s get on with it, those of you regular Readers, feel free to go read some old Posts, (try the one with the pictures of the clarks, scotts and rogers (turtle, dog, cow  respectively).) You new Readers…well you’re kind of stuck.

(Despite how the above may sound), I am not un-happy with where the Doctrine is today.  We have a good core of Readers, who are beginning to get comfortable enough to write Comments.  We have a steady rate of readership and I am starting to look into getting some professional help with the layout of this blog, make it more user friendly.  Should know more this week….

See?  I can’t do it.  I just do not have the ego or the self-confidence or whatever you call it to sit here and just talk about things that are happening to me/to the Doctrine.  Damn.  I guess I will need to find it in myself to somehow come up with something anyway.  What are ya gonna do.  Blank paper + words = new Post.  Pretty simple, isn’t it?

(Yes, roger, you are correct, the fact is I am still writing…) So in a word, the Doctrine will continue.  I will continue to find something to write about and no matter how it makes me feel, I will make sure Posts are here that are new (new sounding anyway).  And while our scotts are stepping up and contributing more and more, the rogerian contingency is off by itself these days.  This is a horrible concept, but one I must in all sincerity warn the clarks about,  things do change.  As my boy Zeno says, ‘you can’t step in the same river twice, yo’.  So in that delightfully ‘horrifying- because-not-only-can-you-not-stop-the-process- but- most-of-you-does-not-want-to-stop’ the process, you do a thing and watch your world shift.  And it is not always a happy thing.  But you do it anyway.

Okay, okay…I was developed for a reason…attention Fillmore High Students…get under your desks..there is severe maudlin threat..yes..who else would this be?  jeez retain much backstory do we?..these people may have created me and the school and all, but sometimes…I just wonder…these are the Wakefield Doctrine people…no one said it was being written by SAG card carrying…lol  I know…I got here just barely in time to bail these guys out…so here is the lesson today:

the Wakefield Doctrine offers amusement and enlightenment…(no, Mr. M not a big word for a high school junior)…it’s a blog for goodness sake, it is not War and Peace…remember what the writer guys say: read, learn and buy a hat…don’t you love those hats?…lol yes I am pushing for tee shirts…ok, all clear,  I think, as your student monitor, that it is safe to come out from under the desks now…Mr. B  do something!

OK.  I think I have it out of my system.

Starting next Post, that is lol.  We will be doing Posts devoted to each of the three types.  The next Post will be about clarks, then scotts and finally rogers.

Thanks for sitting through this one,  oh and remind me to work on the content in the Pages.  Gots to get that more organised.

Always a chance to win a hat.  (Or maybe later in the season we will have the tee shirts ready…suggestions for designs are welcome.  Am thinking: Fillmore High Faculty (got to check and see how many real Fillmore High Schools there are first.)

OK some music then we are outa here.

…’the whole rythmn section was the Purple Gang’…damn!