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

Today Columbus Day is being celebrated. Now, ’round here at the Doctrine, that means two words come to mind: “The Treaty of Tordesillas.”

We know the Doctrine has marginal interest in the, ‘real’ world and its current events and such. There are plenty of others to comment on this or that wrong or right, trends, fads, favorite TV shows and/or celebrity drama.* That being said, the Wakefield Doctrine is all about acquiring an additional perspective on the world to which we wake-up each and every morning.

(Note to New Readers: the Wakefield Doctrine does not hope, plan, promise, threaten or offer-daily-insights-delivered-right-to-your-metaphorical-doorstep-just-sign-up-here anything.
The Doctrine is not an Answer.
It’s a clue.
And, as with any good clue, it’s all about how you can fit it in with the other clues you may already have in your possession. The true ambition of this blog is to provide support for those of us trying to better appreciate, ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’. (not how we relate…. how we relate ourselves to…). The Wakefield Doctrine is also way fun. Once you’ve got the basics, you will: a) never be bored waiting for someone in a public setting and 2) know more about the other person than they know about themselves. No. Really!)

Back to ole Chris….

Yes, one can divine (or deduce or disassemble) the predominant worldview (aka ‘personality type’) of a historical figure. The trick is to take what is accepted as reasonably reliable information about the person; what they did, what they said, what they wore. (oh yes, you read that correctly. What they wore! lol this ain’t no essay-question-compare-and-contrast-and-support-your-argument-with-reliable-citations-sweating-in-the-back-of-the-room-full-of-desks-with-everyone-writing-like-they-studied-before-hand test. This is the Wakefield Doctrine.)

Before we start. A refresher. The Doctrine says that our actions, reactions and behavior is in response to the world/reality we are experiencing. ok, that makes sense. What makes applying the Doctrine more difficult that taking a multiple choice quiz that includes answers found innthe TV guide, and, ironically, what makes the Wakefield Doctrine such a useful tool, is that we are required to step outside of ourselves. No, no astral projection. Just a shift in perspective. (We’ll let you in on a little secret. A depressingly large percentage of the population of the world are, at this moment, dead in their tracks, three sentences back. Like the characters in a CS Lewis or JM Barrie story, they believe that what they know is all there is. They won’t be joining us. They have only one reality.  You, however, can imagine that maybe there are more ‘real’ realities than your normal one.  Sure, it’s ok to feel a swelling of pride.Totally appropriate.  Besides, we did say that ‘with the Doctrine, you will know more about the other person than you have any right to know’ didn’t we? ok… back to work).

First the fun part.

Chris is really stylin with that hat, is he not? (check one in the column: roger)

(Sorry, quick crib sheet item: the Everything Rule. The Everything Rule of the Wakefield Doctrine states, rather succinctly, ‘everyone does everything, at one time or another’. What that means, is that there is no, ‘thats a scott thing to do‘ or ‘only a clark does that‘. It is not what a person does, it is the style in which they do it. That said, a persons worldview can predispose them to being really good at some tasks as opposed to others. Example: surgeon? scott. oncologist? roger pediatrician? clark.  ok, back to work)

Of the three worldviews, hats on men** (not counting backwards baseball caps…scott lol) rogers love to wear hats. Doctrine Hint: a man wearing a beret and he’s not at a costume party? lead pipe cinch he’s a roger) So, we continue to look for clues.

The commonly accepted story is that C Columbus focused his efforts on convincing the King and Queen of Spain to underwrite his surefire plan to discover a new world. Just that, of his time was spent, cozying up to Isabella. Check on in the ‘R’ column.

Apparently his crew was not all that under control during the voyage. In fact, they were near mutiny, and …. Oh.My.God. lol. This is so why you need to stay with this Doctrine. Following is a direct citation, with link, re: mutiny and Columbus’s response.

“The story of the threatened mutiny is one of the most dramatic episodes of the first voyage. The incident took place on Wednesday, 10 October 1492, after they had been at sea for over 31 days without seeing land. The sailors, who had been concealing their discontent, now openly threatened insurrection. They had come to believe that Columbus, the foreigner from Genoa, had deceived them; they supposed he was leading them on a journey from which they would never return. According to one account, the sailors even conspired to do away with their leader, whom they “planned to throw into the sea” (d’-Anghera 1:59–60). Yet, “Columbus, by using gentle words, holding out promises and flattering their hopes, sought to gain time,”(italics totally mind ed.) “…and he succeeded in calming their fears” (Ibid). Others have stated, after the fact, that at this juncture, Columbus promised the men that they would return if they did not sight land within two or three days (Morison 1:286,290–91,292n6). Although Columbus did not record this oft-repeated assertion in his journal, he did report that “I also told the men that it was useless to complain, for I had started out to find the Indies and would continue until I had accomplished that mission…”  quote courtesy of BYU.

oh man! Regular Readers of the Doctrine are surely ‘spit-taking’*** their morning coffee at this un-biased support of the accuracy of the Wakefield Doctrine’s description of the behavior of a person living in the reality of the Herd Member.

Out of time for today. We are so going to continue this tomorrow in Part 2 the Adventures of Columbus.

* no, spare me the fact that no one calls them TV shows or even refer to ‘watching TV’.

** the Wakefield Doctrine is, and has always been, gender, culture and age neutral.

*** a comedic reaction to surprising news or information first made famous by Danny Thomas in the 1950s sitcom ‘Make Room for Daddy’