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

clarks are the ‘personality’ type that is the result of a child growing and developing in the worldview (personal reality) of ‘the Outsider’

the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we, all of us, are heir to three characteristic worldviews, the world of the Outsider/clarks, the reality of the Predator/scotts and the life of the Herd Member/rogers. At a very early age, (for reasons not yet understood), we find ourselves living in one of these three personal realities and develop the coping strategies, social skills and other behavioral nuances appropriate to the world as we are experiencing it.  The character/style/tone of our behavior makes sense, given the reality we are experiencing.

clarks are: creative and subtle, socially immature and needy, independent and other-wordly. (sometimes you’ll hear people say, “oh, I’m so shy! and such an introvert, what a clark you must think I am!” and the astute follower of the Doctrine will smile, (in a kindly and tolerant way), and think, “what a crock. two exclamations in your little statement and you want me to believe you’re a clark. sorry. you have disqualified yourself”)**

Famous clarks: Diane Keaton, Richard Linklater, David Duchovny,  Flo, Kristen Stewart, Robert DiNiro, Cynthia Calhoun, Bill Nye, Bob Newhart, Alton Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Tilda Swinton (what a couple they would make!), Dorothy Gale, Daphne (the cartoon one, not the scottian one), Steven Wright, Jane Foster, Lizzi Rogers, Madame Curie, Joan de Arc

clarks:

curious, easily bored, interested in anything that poses a question, insatiable people-watcher, friendly when not feeling threaten, confident when discussing ideas, totally tropistic for any information, however useless and obscure, in the hope that it will provide an insight into how they should feel, aggressive when dealing with ideas, passive when dealing with real people, (except friends…who they value more than anything), fearful, un-afraid (not the contradiction it would appear to be), the hardest workers you could ever under-pay and self-less to an extreme, egotistical beyond imagining and willing to do anything for a chance to be accepted, except be themselves.  

clarks believe (consciously or otherwise) that they are Outsiders because they lack something, a thing that everyone else clearly is in possession of, (clarks) see no other avenue than to un-cover every rock in the world in the hopes that (this knowledge) is there… that with enough information, they will become Real People.

clarks think.

(oh yeah. New Readers? Visitors from the Azzuz April Blogathon Challenge???  The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that while everyone is of one, and only one, worldview (aka predominant worldview), we all retain the potential to experience the world as do ‘the other two’  so if you’re thinking, ‘damn! this was interesting, but I seem to me a mix of 2’  perfectly ‘normal’. Not to worry. It’s only your secondary or tertiary aspect.)

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* there is one, interesting way to determine if a person is a clark, although it’s a little tricky to set up.  Of the three world views, it is only that clarks who will, upon waking in the morning, sit for a moment and reflect on their up-coming day and consider that everything (everything! people, places and things) as ‘being out there’.
Let me take this opportunity to say this,  a great deal of what we do and learn and infer about the people in our lives relies on our ability to observe the reactions and responses of the other person. No, I don’t mean the big gross reactions,  “What the HELL!!! /ooh baby/ ayiiee”  No, I mean the tiny little clues.

Example: one day I was in my office and the only other person there was a clark. As I walked by, she expressed a bit of particularly heartfelt frustration with the computer she was using, including the statement, “this is one of those days when the world refuses to make sense“.  As she spoke to me of the things in her day that were not coming out the way they always did, I watched her eyes. I noticed that at certain times she was clearly focused on something that was not in the same real estate office that we were in, but, more significantly, I caught her glancing at me whenever she made what she thought might be perceived as an outrageous statement, “I know I left that file on my desk, I never left the room, but when I turned around, it was gone!” (glance).  I decided to share some of my own experiences (a fairly common one among clarks), of ‘getting lost in the world’. I told her about how, just the other day, while driving down a road that I drive every single day, I looked up and did not know where on earth I was… it lasted only for a second, just long enough to get that, twisting-of-the-stomach feeling.
As I spoke, I watched her eyes and, when I got to the climax of the story, (where I made it abundantly clear that I don’t consider it overly abnormal to ‘get lost in the world’)… I could see her pupils dilate. Nothing overt. Nothing a casual participant in the conversation would have had any cause to notice. But there was recognition in her eyes. And then it was gone and the story ended. (and no, I did not relate the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine.)

** yeah, sort of an emotional shibboleth