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

(As I wrote the title today, and thought to myself, ‘yeah, a reasonable theme for a Wednesdaypost’, a second thought intruded, like the overly-aggressive dance partner, insisting on ‘just-one-more-this-is-a-great-song-to… This second thought, like the unwelcome guest at the party who tries to either get invited in, failing that is satisfying with the prospect of spoiling the evening for everyone else, echoes the doubt that is sub-text to many of the efforts here at the Doctrine blog, with the faux-friendly,  ‘that’s the way to get taken seriously! call what you do here a ‘writing exercise’, an elevator pitch’. That’ll do it.)

the Wakefield Doctrine? it’s a way of looking at your life and the people in it. Not quite a personality theory, per se, this thing is more a perspective on why we do the things that we do. A way of posing the question, ‘of all the possible responses to this situation, out of the near-countless options open to me, why would I choose to act this way’. The Wakefield Doctrine would have us ask, ‘why would I choose to feel this way’, given that how we feel about our lives can be more critical to living a satisfying life, than what we think to ourselves (though, arguably this two can be one and nearly the same).  Properly applied, the Doctrine will drastically reduce the number of times you find yourself saying, ‘Why on earth would they go and do/say something like that?! I really thought I knew them better.’

There are, 3 personality types that (can) account for everyone in the world. The three: clarks, scotts and rogers:

• clarks grow up and develop in the world of the Outsider, for clarks, the world (and everyone and everything except for them) is ‘out there’ and they (the clarks) are in this place that they find themselves in, quietly and, at times, desperately, trying to blend in, to pass as ‘a real person’… but before you begin to feel sorry for them, know that  clarks touch the world that is not, and in doing so, have the gift of genuine creativity and true (albeit a touch self-destructive) selflessness
• scotts live today the life of the Predator… while this word/label/type has connotations of hostile aggressiveness, voraciousness and truly basic appetites, these qualities of life can only be maintained by living in and of the present… not dozing away the day in a dream of future pleasure or the memory of pleasure already felt, of the three personality types,  scotts live their lives by embracing the moment…
• rogers are Members of the Herd and therefore know that the world is quantifiable and, while accepting that life is not always fair or good, kind or just, seek to discover the Right/Correct way to demonstrate this fundamental fact… it’s been said that a roger knows that there is a Right Way and a million Wrong Ways to act and they hope only to be able to demonstrate the Right Way rather than be content to merely point out the wrong

Become familiar with the characteristics of these there worldviews (personal realities) and you will be ready to use the Wakefield Doctrine in your day today. How? Simple. Observe the behavior of the person (or yourself) and ask the question, ‘how are they relating themselves to the world around them?’.  The successful application of our little personality theory is to able to ‘see the world as the other person is experiencing it’.  Do this and you will know more about the other person (and about yourself) than you have any right to know. You will be able to anticipate their actions and decisions, choices and reactions to all sorts of the everyday situations that we all find ourselves in…. well, everyday!

In case any of you are thinking, ‘well, this is a fine theory and I’m sure to study it, but I’m on a coffee break at work! I want to have some quiet fun!’, I say…. alright, here’s some Christmas music (along with some Doctrine observationing):

…sure, I enjoy the normal things about the Christmas season! As a matter of fact, Phyllis just came into the room to ask if I knew ‘the name of that song that everyone likes’ (New Readers? Phyllis is a roger)… I assumed that I knew the answer and so I figured out what she meant and gave her the ‘half-correct’ answer (New Readers? I’m a clark). The song is from Handel’s Messiah. I went and found a youtube of it from a performance by the Royal Choral Society.  As I watched, I began to see things… odd things. The (female) lead singer (at 0:16 into the vid)… and then, the young girl who wishes she were somewhere else ( at 0:22 ) then!  (and I just saw it as I went through the vid looking for the next scene…the women in the center (of both rows), one with short brown hair, the woman behind her with long blond hair… holy smoke, rogers on amphetamines?) ( at 0:30 )…now watch the two singers in the back row… what the hell?! their friends, were, like, up in the audience waving at them?  ( at 0:32 )  why are we seeing only the backs of the people who are clearly lead singers? ( at 0:48 ).   ( at 1:16 ) sure are a lot of rogers, but those two, one in the row behind the other….one with a crew cut, both with glasses).   It’s safe to say that, among the men in this chorus, most are rogers with a handful of clarks (the ones with the slightly pained look on their faces)…. here!! ( at 1:44 )  one of each!!  we don’t have to tell you which is which, do we?  ( at 2:36 ) …how the hell did they get Angela Merkel to sit in?!! ) I find it interesting to note that there’s a much higher percentage of clarklike females in the chorus compared to the number of  than male-like clarks! )

Here you go: