Month: October 2020 | the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 31, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Summer’s end with Autumn’s cold light

This is the once-weekend(edly) Wakefield Doctrine post to the Ten Things of Thankful bloghop. Created by Lizzi in 2003, and hosted by Kristi, the TToT arguably, represents the pinnacle of gratitude-themed ‘hops.

The rules, such as they are, are the embodiment of simplicity: mention, reference, describe, provide photos, link music and otherwise share the people, places and/pr things that have elicited, stimulated, overwhelmed-the-busy-conscious-mind, nagged-at-your-better-side and/or otherwise took up residence, claimed a place in and/occcupied your mind over the course of the last seven days, the previous season, the span of several years or at a specific point along the remarkable path of your life resulting in your being here, reading this.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?

1) Una She does not mind the cold, having been born in the Czech Republic

2) Phyllis (for being the voice of history) Phyllis remembered who is who (caninistically-speaking) in the video above that we received before Una caught her flight to the US of A in January 2011 or so

3) the Wakefield Doctrine. Because, as a tool, it provides an additional perspective on the world around me and the people who make it.

4) Serial Stories. Ian Devereaux’s ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf‘ and from the Order of Lilith Books, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘

5) Six Sentence Story Because not only does practice improve a skill, but doing so in the company of others with the same ambition is fun.

6) Work. The prep and practice for the social media project continues (we have a target start date of November 13th) Goals have a way of focusing attention.

7) the co-hostinae both current and down through the years Kristi and Lisa and Mimi and Dyanne and Patricia and the others standing in the mist of memories of past ‘oTs

8) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE We have this Item open and available for anyone with a desire to ‘try’ a Grat Item, without writing a whole post. Send it in through the comments below (along with any attributions and we’ll totally put it here.

9) For Summer passed and the promise of Spring and warmth once more, waiting for us on the far side of the sun.

10) Secret Rule 1.3 ’cause what fun is list-making if’n you don’t have a vehicle that lets you play a little (while still contributing).

music

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, psychology of personality, the Wakefield Doctrine

Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…and holds his clarklike aspect cheap*”

October 30, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Tomorrow is Halloween. If the Wakefield Doctrine were a religion, then surely we would be celebrating the Feast of St. Clark.

Students of the Doctrine, sitting at their computers, cauldrons of coffee to the side, watching the new day dawn like a conscripted soldier, towards the back of the crowd in listening to the most excellent speech from ‘Henry V’ (the Branagh version), are smiling to no one in particular and muttering, “A saint clark, as if”.

“And why”, a well-intentioned, yet tentative, New Reader asks, looking around the metaphorical library/coffee house/study/daytime bedroom, “Do you smile like that?”

Though on the morrow, clarks will leave their homes and mix with others in open and laughing fun, there will never be a Saint Clark because to be designated and otherwise honored as a saint requires a consensus and Outsiders are as alien to consensus as a hummingbird to the depths of the ocean.

Great scene (vid below). (Why no, I have not, in fact, watched the entire movie. I’m a clark)

As to Halloween and clarks? Before we mine history for expressions of this most clarklike of holidays, lets just say, the reason clarks embrace Halloween is because, for a brief time, we can be someone else, while sharing the company of ‘real’ people. It need not be a costume of opposites, nor is our preferred disguise a mirror. We simply have a ‘Pass’ to act and feel as we might.

“What? Who in the back of this comfortable, if not metaphoric room, shouted, ‘The Everything Rule is the Key of Solomon!’

Who ever it was, is absolutely correct. All three types ‘do’ Halloween. Halloween, however, manifests differently for each.”

Here’s that reprint (from October 31, 2014) I promised.

Welcome to… (sorry do your own scary, radio voice-over audio here) Velcome to ze Vakefield Doctrine… (the spookiest, most useful and fun theory of creepy-clarks, scary scotts and… and regulatory! rogers!)

Yeah, I’m kinda surprised too. How I got through the last 4 years without a Post on the topic of Halloween is totally beyond me. I’ll bet I mentioned it, (Halloween), on a number of occasions, if for no other reason than Halloween is one of the Big Three ( holiday celebrations), and marks the end of Summer! In any event, all that changes today!

hey! here’s a disquieting surprise! I was about to do a bullet-point listing of Halloween and the three personality types (knowing that this is a clarklike holiday) and I thought to check Wikipedia for a reference, or at very least a good image (I’m a Contributing Member of Wikipedia, so I’m comfortable using ‘our’ images*)… and my stomach turned at what I read.

…this (my reaction to my anticipation of the Reader’s reaction, is what I’m finding interesting). I’m finally coming to appreciate that most Readers are more advanced in their understanding of the principles and application of the Doctrine.** …anyway I thought, “man! I don’t have to even have to explain what it is about this citation that makes me feel…. (something: not pleasant, but more on the wistfully regretful, rather than scared or outraged). Weird, huh?

Screw this reflectioning, here’s the citation from Wikipedia:

Development of artifacts and symbols associated with Halloween formed over time. Jack-o’-lanterns are traditionally carried by guisers on All Hallows’ Eve in order to frighten evil spirits. There is a popular Irish Christian folktale associated with the jack-o’-lantern, which in lore, is said to represent a “soul who has been denied entry into both heaven and hell”:

On route home after a night’s drinking, Jack encounters the Devil and tricks him into climbing a tree. A quick-thinking Jack etches the sign of the cross into the bark, thus trapping the Devil. Jack strikes a bargain that Satan can never claim his soul. After a life of sin, drink, and mendacity, Jack is refused entry to heaven when he dies. Keeping his promise, the Devil refuses to let Jack into hell and throws a live coal straight from the fires of hell at him. It was a cold night, so Jack places the coal in a hollowed out turnip to stop it from going out, since which time Jack and his lantern have been roaming looking for a place to rest.

(neither the hell (waiting for the scotts) nor the heaven (of the rogers) awww…. poor clark)

Halloween:

clarks see opportunity but are limited by their capacity to trust the costume

scotts see fun but are limited by the restriction of custom… vandalism is out of favor, organized marches through neighborhood streets are de rigueur what kind of fun is that?!

rogers see celebration, but their fun is to be standing inside the door, when the participants come marching up the driveway

* Wm ‘who said I was a roger?!?!’ Shakespeare

a little holiday music (would some explain how they got Charles Nelson Reilly to play the conductor?)

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: psychology of personality, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 29, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Run by Denise.

She will inspect your letters of transit (count your sentences?)

This is a Whitechapel Interlude week. Read up on the story here.

You know, how sometimes, in the true spirit of flash fiction, we don’t slow down enough to read the backstory. As a public service, permit me to employ that most helpful, (and, I suspect, more difficult to execute than it appears), classic TV series trope:

…previously in the Whitechapel Interlude,

The appearance of a time traveler in the East London district of Whitechapel causes the local chapter of the Order of Lilith to enter a state of high, if not very discreet, alert. Spanning the ages, existing in the shadows of history, the Order is not as alarmed by the fact of time travel as it is concerned with the reason for it to occur at this time and in this place. Brother Abbott assigns recent recruit Anselm to follow the visitor and report on his activities. Anselm takes on the role of a bellboy and escorts the traveler, Mr. Egmont, according to the registry, to his suite on the St. Pancras hotel. Meanwhile, in the anteroom of the holding cell in local chapter of the Order, Sister Sarah has an encounter, that the approaching years of study might have given her the sufficient tools and weapons.

Lets rejoin our story, already in progress.

Prompt word:

FOUNDATION

Rolling her head on the dried porridge surface of the stone floor, Sarah felt, then saw, the door burst open a spilt-second ahead of Brother Abbott; lassitude flowed and carried her along the edges of alert and entirely-elsewhere, as she watched him, fists clenched like a cloth bag of chestnuts, a telltale filigree of concern softening his voice, “Sarah, are you alright?”

Sarah was young and, in keeping with the Order of Lilith’s view on the care and training of the body, balanced on the edge of thinly-muscled and being mistaken for a boy; from her perspective, the man entering the room, with a quickness that should have blurred outlines and swept back his brown hair, was quite large and nearer the age of parents than friends.

Had she been only a few years more advanced in her studies and training, the mixed reaction flaring in both her mind and her body would have raised an alarm; Brother Abbott’s display of powerful grace in the first two seconds upon entering the room was both surprising and oddly exciting; even a little more study would have flagged the deepening of her breath and narrowing of eyes.

Kneeling at her side, he became the foundation of her world; one hand lightly touched her throat, his eyes first to the black rectangle of the holding cell then to her, Brother Abbott’s breathing was un-labored, yet his nostrils flared like a race horse after crossing the finish line first, as he scanned her for broken bones or worse, flowing blood.

Sarah was drawn from the peaceful calm that flourished in the lethal competence that radiated off his broad shoulders by a sense of another, which was impossible, a mistaken assumption that was the true price of her naiveté.

“Hello Sarah, it appears you and I are going to be close…very close friends,” despite her fear, Sarah reached up and grasped Brother Abbott’s forearm with a strength that, were he not still in full attack mode, might have added something to his relief as his favorite student rose from the floor.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: Six Sentence Story, the Wakefield Doctrine

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 28, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

You know why there is such an emphasis on the concept of personal reality here at the Doctrine?

Well, before I answer that, let me go on record as saying that accepting the concept of personal reality avails one of the most immediate benefits of this here personality theory here. It is totally a Pepto Bismal shake, (with crumbled Rolaid topping), to relieve cognitive dissonance. (At least, in the cases of Reflective Cognitive Dissonance*)

We all encounter, or have friends, who at one time or another acquire and/or profess beliefs and opinions that seem to stand in direct opposition of everything they’ve always stood for or believed. For our purposes, we’re referring to opinions on the world and life and such, otherwise they remain the same people they have always been. Except for this one thing.

Because we all are, for the most part, reasonable people, we try to understand how these friends/co-workers/classmates/family members can: believe that/do that/espouse ideas.

And we fail.

But, because they are friends or family members, we don’t want to give up. So we look at what they say, (or do or espouse), and turn it upside down and look at it sideways. No luck. It still doesn’t make sense. To make matters worse, they are still the same person, except for this one little, (but thoroughly aggravating) instance.

Personal reality, (and his really hot partner, Perspective), is the only thing that allows us to resolve this mental/emotional turmoil. (‘Cause they’re not gonna change, no matter how many times we say, “Yeah, but….!”)

The conflict is within us. We are trying to reconcile a conflicting belief/idea with our own personal reality that does not (here’s a total hint) include the ideas of our friend/family that is not making sense. Well, duh.

Allow that, within their personal reality, (a thin layer of translucent colored cellophane through which light must pass, their reality includes facts, principles, inferences, ideas, conclusions and assumptions, both empirical and satirical, reasons, ratiocination and damn-fool stubbornness, all, of course, a priori), they feel no conflict in their beliefs**.

The beauty part of employing the concept of personal reality to this problem is that it does not require anything from you. There is an old(ish) saying here at the Wakefield Doctrine, ‘the Doctrine is for you, not them.’

For some, this, (acquiring an additional perspective), manifests as a threat. If I imagine there is another reality, one that is real as the one I know, then what does it say about my world?! It will destroy the trueness of everything! It can’t be permitted.

It’s worth repeating. If you can allow that the personal reality of another person can account for a particular aberration, then that resolves the conflict within you. And…and! this acceptance does not constitute condoning, agreeing or any ‘ing’ relative to the belief in question. This about you, not them.

So, for cases of Reflective Cognitive Dissonance, (not a ‘real’ psychological condition), more is not less.

Adding, in and of itself, can’t subtract, unless you add a different ….(what did they call it in grade school? operation! yeah! ) a different operation.

* though probably not in any DSM you’re likely to find, we’re using RCG as a term to describe the state of conflict when you observe a friend or family member espousing, sometime joyfully, ideas and attitudes that… that, well, they really must know better than that!! You know them, they’re not like that, except for this one area of their life, they show all the normal and consistent beliefs they’ve always maintained.

** the favored illustration of the normalcy of inconsistency of reality*** is three people standing on the sidewalk of a busy city street across from a popular restaurant. Its lunch hour, the reputation of the eatery is well-established; the line is beginning to extend out the door. The reactions, (lets picture thought balloons over the heads of our three hungry people): “Well, that looks like a wait of fifteen minutes and I’ve got to…” “Awright! Leave it to me, I went out with that person at the door.” “Home.”

*** lol, no, seriously, you should write one of these posts… its totally fun

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, personality types, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 27, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

So I was reading Mimi’s comment to yesterday’s post and, maybe it was something I did in the course of yesterday’s effort to loosen or otherwise lubricate the chains of time, but a synapse flickered into the briefest of life and I thought, “Hey! Thats a way a person in possession of the (additional) perspective afforded by the Wakefield Doctrine could see that.”

Getting ahead of myself, hold on…. ok yesterday’s Post is here.

Mimi, she say,

Of course i mumble, to myself — i have to have at least one intelligent conversation each day (present company on this here site also counts)

To which, (feel free to channel Jules Winfield), I said,

“…you provide an interesting point, as a furtherance, an extension, if you will, of the thought underlying my reply to Phyllis’ comment… in which she asks if the Wakefield Doctrine is ‘of the Herd’, a reasonable assertion because she is a roger. However, the concept of groups of like-kind is arguably a universal experience. To my point that the Everything Rule always applies, your description of talking to yourself, provides us with an insight into how ‘the Herd’ manifests among clarks/Outsiders.

And that, (the above), is an example of fun of the Wakefield Doctrine.

The true benefit of the Wakefield Doctrine is not merely that it offers three ‘interpretations’ of the world around us and the people who make it up. Heck no! The real benefit of this business of the Everything Rule is how it encourages us to see the world as the other person is experiencing it.

(Note: we did not say, ‘..us to see the world as the other person is seeing it.’ We said, ‘…as the other person is experiencing it.’ We hold that everyone experiences reality on a personal basis, this is a reminder that the people and the world in which we encounter them is not (necessarily) a simple extrapolation and extension of our own reality.)

oh man! who let the clarks out?!!

(barking sound here)