hey, this being the week before “what-the-hell-do-you-mean-‘next-week?’-there-are-at-least-2-more-weeks-left’ Thanksgiving I thought I would re-run this, one of my favorite Posts.
But before we do that, a total big shout-out to them what listened and sent suggestions and such for the Big Radio Day! It went totally well, everyone had fun and this is so going to be an on-going feature of the Wakefield Doctrine! Stay tuned, yo. I want to thank Janine and Amy and Cyndi (on the 3rd shift lol) for the encouraging Comments but special thanks are in order to Jasmine Tea (and) Cari (thoughts and intent are real, at least for clarks).
Then there was Molly and Denise (tbfkaDS#1) Hey, It made a difference! Will be doing this again next week, you know I will be talking more about it.But for today, on with the Re-run!
Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine ( the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) on this eve of Saint rogers’s Day!
Thanksgiving Day1 is the holiday that, if we did not already know that there exists a personality type referred to as a roger, someone else would have pointed it out to us. Perhaps the task would have fallen to an Art Professor in a land grant college somewhere in the Midwest. We can imagine the epiphany …in the middle of the night (during his sabbatical devoted to the study of the works of Norman Rockwell)
” My god! Norman’s work is not just a robust and healthy celebration of paedophilia! He has been trying to tell us to transform our culture! …for all good Americans to come forth and show their appreciation of patriotism, consumerism and child-abuse!!”
We have, from time to time, been accused of indiscriminate use of hyperbole in these pages, however, just consider the astounding level of pervasiveness of the ‘Holiday of Thanksgiving’. It is not enough to close the Post Office system and all other government agencies2 , no it is not, this Holiday actually attempts to compel normal, rational, adult people to sit in front of the television and watch a Parade involving giant balloon representations of out-of-print newspaper cartoon characters! Who the hell watches the Macy’s Day Parade on purpose?!? Throughout the entire morning of Thanksgiving, you simply cannot escape the pageantry and spectacle, broadcast live and has as the ’emcees’, News Anchors from the major networks morning news shows! ( ” Thats right, Matt! That’s Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift on the Snoop Dog float… it says here that her eye makeup took 12 hours and 6 pounds of aluminum foil chips to create!!” ). Like a Hieronymus Bosch painting done in ‘live-action’, the whole country is exposed to hours and hours of Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade… more than 3 hours of parade music and floats (” … hey, Anne isn’t the next float from your hometown”? “That’s right Al! it’s my old Alma mater, the East Clydesdale High School Marching Band playing a medley, ‘Straight outta Compton’, ‘Dope Man’ and ‘Gangsta Gangsta’ )
Why do we say Thanksgiving is the most rogerian of all holidays? Simply because Thanksgiving is about the how, not the why. As a holiday and a cultural event, this particular holiday tells it’s participants exactly what to do; what to eat and how to cook it! Taught from childhood, every member of our culture knows precisely how (and) where they are expected to spend the Holiday! Thanksgiving is about family! and if there is anything that rogers fake better than anyone, it is the joyful appreciation and celebration of the family.
But don’t just take my word for it! Following is an excerpt from a Post of the Wakefield Doctrine that was written over a year ago! (and nothing says credibility better than…age)
We all know that “the holidays” are experienced differently by each of the three (clarks, scotts and rogers) and therefore the demands of the celebrations are a very effective illustration of the nature of each. But if there was no Thanksgiving, a roger would have invented it! (Actually, they probably did). Think about it! A holiday celebration that is:
- based on a factual historical event (sort of)
- the protagonists (of the story) are religious refugees, persecuted and driven away together on boats
- food, specific food and a not-to-be-deviated-from Menu
- ritual menu and a full schedule of events
- shopping in herds, as the climax of the celebration (Black Friday)
- a moral taught to the young: we came here, those strangers who helped us were different, (…we had a feast and wiped out their culture)
I will be so bold as to suggest that there is no more rogerian a holiday than Thanksgiving! And since we are on the subject of rogers and holidays, (sort of), is there any human activity that is more one sided, over-hyped, ‘expectations-sure-to-fall short’, ( not counting sex on the eve of a relationship breaking up), than Parades? I don’t care if you are a trombone player in the middle of the herd or someone sitting in their living room watching it on TV, nothing says roger better than Parades!
1) the Day that the indigenous people of the North American continent made a gift of their lands and cultures and cuisine to their new European friends.
2) you do know about the Post Office and rogers, don’t you?
About clarkscottroger
Enjoyed reading this post today as much as the first time. LOL
A good holiday indeed for sussing out the rogers! (and in another very easy way, the clarks)
But I must say, there are aspects, as a clark, I do enjoy. Or did at one time.
The parades? I can’t even imagine how they are enjoyed as it seems a rather foreign concept…..wait. I recall visiting Easton, MD years ago coincidentally on the day of their Christmas parade. Everyone gathered along the main streets, lots of children, lots of smiles and candy. Emotion was in the air and it was…nice. Sharing it with my SO, a roger, was special. I wonder had I been there with a clark?
Hey! Another barometric tool for figuring who is who? The parade thing made me think – clarks, as we know, find parades silly. We do not understand the circus. Stupid? Good enough adjective. And what about zoos. Don’t get me going on zoos, geez.. Which means we can compare scotts and rogers in all those scenarios, at those places and boy, talk about differences in perception of reality!!
Seems I’m on the Thursday babbletrain so I better leave.
“…I wonder had I been there with a clark?”
you would not have been, lol
Good idea about the parade and zoo as a context for establishing personality types.
parades: rogers followed by (literally and figuratively) by scotts and maybe a tag-along clark ( btw the true litmus test would be: parades on TV!)
zoos: scotts followed by rogers maybe a tag-along clark
parks: sitting on a bench talking to the person next to them, without stopping the watching of the passing humanity clarks! then rogers and (you can hear them in the distance and/or watch them trying to sneak up on the pidgins: scotts!!)
first off glad things went so well yesterday and very happy for you. As for Thanksgiving, I never quite thought of the way your original post described, but after reading it, you made so very valid points. You always have a way of leaving me thinking and giving me great food for thought. Thanks as always my friend!!
@Janine
it was fun and challenging, ( I have taken to thinking of the radio thing as not only an explanation ( of this little personality theory) but as a demonstration of it’s effectiveness ( doing things that we might want to do, but can’t imagine doing) of course, that message is aimed at our clarklike friends, you rogers and scotts are not as in need of the self-improvement thing.
This is a great post – very funny too! I really like Thanksgiving when I get to spend it quietly at home with my family (this doesn’t always happen and I hate when we have to travel on the holidays). I would like to change the menu though, at least a little! No one else seems to be on board with that. :)
@Amy
thank you… the strength/power of tradition is quite marked in this particular cultural event. How can you not want the same meal each year??! It’s a celebration of gratitude so be grateful that you don’t have to worry about what’s on the menu! lol
Here I thought I was a clark, but based on the parade/zoo/circus/park analogies I am almost certainly a scott…damn my whole worldview is fersnizzled. I guess I had better get to work on my shoulder pushing behaviors.
I’m definitely not a roger though. 2 years now without Thanksgiving and to be honest if you hadn’t posted this I wouldn’t even know it was coming. Is Christmas a scott holiday? I likes me some Christmas cheer :)
@Steve
(don’t forget secondary Aspects!*) these are when we have qualities (of the other two) in higher than average levels. This does not change the pre-dominant worldview (whatever it may be) a clark is still experiencing the world as an Outsider but may have a more varied array of responses. The key, as always, which of the three worldviews resonates truest to you?
A (developed) secondary Aspect is not mandatory (there in no 1/3-1/3-1/3 apportioning of traits and such) many people are simply scottian or rogerian (though not as many clark as simply clarks… it’s kinda a survial thing)
DownSpring Molly is a good example of a clark with a secondary aspect, she lives in the worldview of a clark, but some of her ‘problem-solving’ skills are clearly rogerian)
@ Amy – sounds like you are a clark in the midst of many rogers!
I say go ahead and try it – change one thing about next week’s Big Meal.
btw, have you identified you husband? Is he clark, scott or roger?
I don’t know about the Post Office and Rogers. lolol. You’ll have to elaborate on that. I’m heading to my side of the family – and I will be surrounded by my mom who is a scott and the rest of my family who are rogers in every sense of the word. I’m the only clark. well, my husband and I are. It’s fun, but we will come home incredibly drained from the experience. LOL. As always, fun post. :)
@Cyndi
Good Luck! the good thing about a bunch of rogers, it is easy to get ignored, if you get to the point of needing ‘a break’ from the holiday festivities. It is thought that the natural personality type for thriving in such an overwhelmingly bureaucratic an environment as the USPS is so a roger!