Welcome the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
…finally some quality alone-time. We love doing the bloghops, the FTSF and the TToT and the MixTape Tuesdays because they are challenges and (they) give us back more than we put in, but it’s still nice to just ‘sit and talk’ about the Wakefield Doctrine, no?
Funny how, when we started this blog, the mountain to scale every morning was: what to write? how to reach the audience? will we ever be successful (whatever that meant then or even means now!) and now, only a few years into the effort, I’m complaining about how busy we are interacting with other blogs and bloggers, Friends and DownSprings… and yet, here I am… hurling words into the ether, about not having enough time to write Doctrine-centric Posts (yeah, like anything I write is not Doctrine-centric…lol), and, …and! I’ve even heard myself self lament over (or, if you prefer o’er ) not being able to keep up with Comments! I apologize to any listenators, the fact of the matter is very simply this: I am counting Comments the way I used to count frickin visits! how cool is that? (of course, the bulk of the Commentation is a result of participating in the aforementioned bloghops), nothing like having popular friends to get invited to hangout with… hey thanks guys!
on to the reprint! here is something from a year ago that you might not have read. (how weird is it when you read something that you know you wrote, but then you get caught by surprise and say to yourself, ‘hey pretty good! who is this writer?’ lol)
(08.22.13)
Wednesday ( how to answer the Question: “what did you just say about me?” ) the Wakefield Doctrine (and what the hell is the deal with the ‘d’ in Wednesday?)
Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Three things to accomplish today:
- provide Readers with a simple, yet comprehensive definition of the Wakefield Doctrine, in case they, (the Readers), actually accepted the challenge presented in yesterday’s Post
- offer some advice and guidance on how people will most likely react to being described as clarklike or scottian or rogerian
- find out what the hell the letter ‘d’ is doing in the word Wednesday… seriously, not a ‘duh’ sound anywhere, in any pronunciation that I have ever heard… it must be a trick!
Number One item first!
the Wakefield Doctrine is a unique, productive and fun way to look at the behavior and (the) personalities of the people in our lives. The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that everyone has a personal reality, or worldview, and that it is this worldview that accounts for the behavior and personality in all of us. The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that there are three characteristic worldviews: the worldview of the Outsider (a clark) the reality of the Predator (the scottian personality) and the real world of the Herd Member (the roger) and all of us live in one of these three. The Doctrine goes on to say, that even though we all pick one of these three worldviews to live in, we always retain the capability to experience the world as either of the ‘other two’ personality types. The Wakefield Doctrine proposes that by knowing how the world appears to a person (the nature and character of their worldview), it is possible to know why people act the way they do. With a thorough understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine, it is possible for us to know more about ‘the other person’ than they know about themselves! It’s fun to learn and as an added bonus, there is a growing community of people who are not only learning about the Wakefield Doctrine and how it can help them understand the people in their lives, but they themselves are contributing to the development of this ‘personality theory’ on a daily basis. (…oh yeah! The Wakefield Doctrine is possibly the most effective tool for self-improvement and self-development ever seen!)
Pretty simple, isn’t it?
2) (…when they catch you describing them!):
- the person you are describing as clarklike or scottian or rogerian overhears you or is told that you have described them with (one of those) words and then confronts you
- the person you are describing asks you for more of an explanation in a private setting, after the initial interaction
Number 2 is simple: give them the url and suggest that they go and read more about it for themselves. If this person gets belligerent or otherwise adversarial, tell them that you will give them a secret password that they should put in the subject line of the email that they should write, that if they use this secret password, then their email will go right to the top! The secret password is: ‘damn!’
Number 1 is not as simple, but much more instructive! (Note: this advice is written from the perspective of the person doing ‘the naming’ is a clark. go ahead, ask us why! lol)
If the person is a clark, then chances are they won’t say anything, they will however establish some form of temporary eye contact… this will be accompanied by a slight raising of the eyebrows and (possibly) a brief clarksmile* it is safe to ignore them, but if you decide to engage them, simply offer the url, then say, “it’s probably something you have already heard of”
If the person is a scott, then immediately laugh but do not, under any circumstances try to run away (that will simply trigger their chase instinct). Follow the laughter with a ‘throw-away’ explanation about how you got the term scottian from one of those crazy personality types websites… that it was really an interesting site and how they describe people as animal types…sort of. If the scott is alone (as if!), they will ask to hear more; if they are not alone, keep an eye on the people who are gathered around the scott, the pack. At the slightest hint of anyone in the pack taking offense at your characterization, immediately offer to take the scott to your computer and show them what you are talking about ( even if they don’t take the bait, you might have a chance to make a break for the door)
If the person is a roger, they will most likely appear to enjoy and agree with what you have said, showing great interest in this ‘rogerian‘ thing. Don’t believe them! Tell them that it was nothing and how, now that they mention it, you realise you were probably wrong and the designation from this personality type website is clearly way off base. Get away as quickly as possible.
3) Wensday! that is how they should spell it! running out of time, go see our friends at wikipedia for the etymology, yo ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday )
There you go! If anyone has anything to report (on their efforts to ‘call out’ friends and family Doctrine-style), totally let us know! The statement above about how everyone is contributing to the development of this here personality theory here was made with complete sincerity.
*clarksmile the peculiar way clarks have of smiling… brief eye contact, followed by a pressing of the lips together. this pressing has an effect of forcing the lips outwards to the sides, looking totally like a possible smile! sort of lol
Happy wensday. Why do we even capitalize it, anyways? In Spanish, only people’s names and formal places have capitals. It’s nice. lol
And we CHOOSE our worldviews? Yeah, I saw that line up there? So, I CHOOSE to be an outsider? Sometimes I feel it’s a condemndamnation.
Cyndi
who said that!??! (me? where? lol) (nah…gonna let it stand, who knows I might need an alibi someday…)
love the word! condemndamnation!!
Hi stopping by from Bloppy Bloggers it’s great to meet you!
Sarah
Thank you and welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine… if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask!
Um yes. I don’t think we “choose” our Worldviews, or Wednesdays, either. My ex stepmother (Jane, AKA BEOTCH) said it like this “Wed-en-es-day” She was dumb. And Dumb. And mean. Anyway! So glad your blog is fully functional again. Said in the Data Voice. You’re BACK. YAY.
Also? I’m so glad we’ve learned the trick into tricking Rogers. Doh. They need it. Scott? Stop reading. Your beer is getting warm.
Kristi
(the question of ‘how’ we end up in the worldviews that we do is an interesting and under-explored question, at least the moment), the Doctrine continues it’s steps towards it’s destiny.
…lol
Late to the party here, but I laughed out loud at the definition of “clarksmile.” Terribly accurate.
Lisa
well… that ‘smile thing’ being one of the primary characteristics (of clarks) you just may be a clark. (Don’t forget! ‘being a clark’ simply means that you live in the world of the outsider. the description of the predominant worldview is good for a gross general overview (lol), the next step is to be on the lookout for your secondary (and tertiary aspects), these are the factors that start to describe the individual with very scary accuracy.)
questions… just ask! (I should warn you. This Doctrine is very fun and scary useful, but the thing is, as you become more and more versed in the understanding of the three worldviews (we call it ‘becoming fluent’) you will find that you will see the scotts and rogers and clarks in your world. However, once you start to recognize them, you may not be able to not recognize them lol…. and the really fun thing is when, say you see a roger and they start acting totally like the Doctrine says they should… and you’re all, “hey! did you read that site too?” and they’re all, ‘what are you talking about’ lol