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

It is common knowledge among those who visit this blog more than twice* that I started it in order to expose the maximum number of people to the benefits of the Wakefield Doctrine.

As the years pass, I’ve pursued one ambition, to write the perfect Wakefield Doctrine post. It, (this perfect Wakefield Doctrine post), would be such that a Reader would, reading it but once, look around his or her world, (and the people who make it up), and apply the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine to their benefit.

So let’s try one this morning.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on life, the world and the people who surround us, as we navigate the course from our helpless births to our powerless deaths. The Wakefield Doctrine is a tool. A tool to aid the understanding of the afore-mentioned world, people and life, as well as a better understanding ourselves.  (Tools are funny things. Our world is crowded with those offering to sell us tools. Before signing up for the 3 Easy Payment Plan, we would be well-served to remember our experiences as young children when encountering tools. I, for one, still believe that a hammer can work on a screw; if the need is strong enough or the patience limited. lol)

The Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the notion that we are, all of us, born with the potential to experience life in one of three characteristic realities. The world of the Outsider(clarks), that of the Predator(scotts) and the life of the Herd Member(rogers). At a very early age, we settle into one of these three. We grow and mature, learning and developing strategies for interacting with the world.

The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that, even though we all settle into one (and only one) of these three worldviews, (Outsider, Predator, Herd Member), we retain the potential of ‘the other two’. This explains why sometimes, a person new to the Doctrine might say, ‘Hey! I know I’m a clark but there are times when I surely am a scott.’ At times of sufficient duress, we sometimes access the strategies and styles of ‘the other two’ in order to deal with the situation. (This, btw, is a total hint at the power of the Doctrine as a tool for self-improvement.)

The Wakefield Doctrine, at its heart, is all about ‘How we relate ourselves to the world around us‘. The wording is critical and quite deliberate. We are all used to the idea of ‘relating to the world’, our efforts to respond to the demands of daily life. We did not say that. What we said was, ‘How we relate ourselves to the world around us.’ The emphasis on the self is not as egocentric and self-absorbent** as it may sound. It is, rather, a call to know yourself.

So that’s the philosophical part. Now the fun part! How do you recognize the three personality types?  wellll! Before I go into a ‘three part description, lets go simple(st): clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel.

Of course, as we said, this is not about answering self-describing questions in the back of a magazine or on the facebook. This is about the identifying the reality that surrounds you or the person you are trying to understand.

• clarks (Outsiders): self-effacing, shy, diffident and hopelessly rebellious. clarks live in the world of thought and ideas, knowledge and information, they are congenitally curious, and are heir to a wealth of facts of varying degrees of practical value. clarks will be found on the edges of the group, have a tendency to mutter and exhibit fairly poor posture, they are passive by choice (the saying is: ‘clarks abhor being the center of attention but will not tolerate being ignored’) Hopelessly creative, imaginatively self-destructive they make great friends and disappointing students/employees
• scotts (Predators): aggressive, mercurial, confident and always on the move. The saying ‘Carpe diem’ applies to scotts both literally and figuratively.. they are the easiest of the three personality types to pick out… they are the ones at the center of a group (at least after they’re established their ranking among any other scotts in the area) and people like them, scotts are natural leaders because they are certain and have confidence, they don’t always have the best plan but they are the first in most situations to say ‘Follow Me!’ and most people do… off the cliff or into the New Frontier… doesn’t matter to the scott, all that matters is that they are acting and living life…now!
• rogers (Herd Members): sociable, knowledgeable and always at home. those who grow up and develop their personality in the reality of the Herd Members have the advantage of certainty, they know they belong. rogers know that the world is a quantifiable place and that there is a Right Way (-to do things, to operate machinery, build a deck, cure a disease, raise a family) and their pride in being aware of this forms their attractiveness and lays the groundwork for their downfalls and setbacks. They are easy to talk to, socially confident and account for the present state of the ‘hard sciences’ especially engineering. Which is re-assuring as you travel thirty-five thousand feet above the ground. (scottian engineers are easily distracted and might be in the break room with the newest intern when it was time to re-check the calculations for the airframe of the newest jet and clarklike engineers….well, there’s that thing about 2 + 2*** so maybe it’s good that, with their dislike for mathematics, the percentage of aeronautical engineers who are clarks is fairly small.)

There you have it.

* once is accidental, twice is ‘did that site really claim to know more about me than I know about myself?!’ but three times is the charm, the curse and an indication of either: a) predominant clarklike worldview or 2) a significant secondary clarklike aspect. in either of these cases, we say, ‘welcome’

** one of my favorite ‘rogerian expressions’. Beyond the scope of a post. Go look it up.

*** ask a scott, “How much is 2 + 2? And, after making a joke, they’ll laugh and say ‘I’ll tell ya later’. ask a roger the same question and they will say, “4” (No comment, question or even emotion. It’s just a fact of life.) Pose this question to a clark, “How much is 2 + 2?” and their likely response will be something like “In what context?”