Month: October 2020 | the Wakefield Doctrine

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “… to ring a bell is to play the same notes heard differently”

October 20, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

(uh oh… by the looks of that sub-title, someone’s been listening to old records again… )

lol

We were privileged to receive a comment on yesterday’s post from a new Reader, Jael. In her comment she says,

I confess I tend to get confused in these posts (as well as comments received on my posts)…I’m guessing I’m somewhere between a Clark and a Roger, definitely not a Scott/predator

First off, thank you for the comment. They, (comments) are, at very least, half the reason for writing this blog.

As mentioned in my reply, it has been a core ambition to write the perfect Doctrine blog post, though I have strayed from that central theme over recent years. There was a time when every post was one in which the principles of the Doctrine were laid-out, illustrated, illuminated, dissected, analyzed and dramatized. However, I’ve tended to stray from this, in the service of a more questionable goal, to learn to write good.

But enough about me!

(Lets shake out the spandex and sequins, crank up the smoke machine, and turn everything up to ’11’. With any luck, I won’t fall off the front of the stage and sprain something necessary.)

the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) is predicated on the idea that we, all of us, are born with the capacity to experience the world, and the people who make it up, in one of three ways: as an Outsider (clarks), a Predator (scotts) or a Herd Member (rogers). At an early stage in life, for reasons not understood, we all settle into one of these three personal realities. The Wakefield Doctrine maintains that reality itself is, to a small but very significant degree, personal. Not such a radical notion, nothing weird like singing teapots or animals with drivers licenses, simply personal. Consider:

Two people, standing on the sidewalk of a noon-rush city street, looking at the same restaurant. The idea of personal reality allow that they are surely experiencing this moment in time differently. (Hint: one is friends with the manager and used to date the bartender, the other threw-up on the perfectly white linen tablecloth of the table where the family had gathered to celebrate a grandparent’s 99th birthday.)

Once we have settled into our predominant worldview, (whichever of the three), it becomes our reality. And, no surprise here, we learn as children to deal with the world around us, we develop our strategies for getting through life, aka a personality type.

Here’s the cool part: the character of our personality type is a reflection of the world. Our personality types are inevitable, (and effective), because they are geared to the world, as we are experiencing it.

Examples:

the Outsider (clarks) grow up on the fringes, avoiding the spotlight yet finding ways to be a part of a world of people, all of whom seem separate and different.
the Predator (scotts) develop their social strategies in a context where life consists of threats and rewards, danger and pleasure. Like the Predator in nature, this personality type is all about reaction time, staying alert (to the aforementioned threats and dangers) and moving fast
the Herd Member (rogers) belong. They belong, and, more importantly, they experience a world where there are Rules and the future is knowable and quantifiable

… hey, Jael, running out of time and, as I read what I’ve written, its clear I’ll need to resort to some old tricks to get ‘off stage’ in a way that looks totally planned.

One last thing: while we all settle into one, (and only one), of the three personal realities, we never lose the potential to experience the world as ‘the other two’. These are referred to as secondary (and tertiary) aspects. Myself, as an example: I am a clark (my predominant worldview) with a strong secondary scottian aspect and a weak tertiary rogerian aspect. What this mean is that I although am fluent in mumbling, avoid eye contact, and am hypo-photogenic, if under duress or focused on something important to me, I will make sure you hear me, but without a hug.

So, I will continue practicing to write the perfect Wakefield Doctrine post. (This is not it. lol)

oh, yeah! one other thing. Your comment makes it clear you have the right idea about how to determine a person’s personality type. Throw out the, ‘no fricken way!’ choice and then look through the eyes of the remaining two. The one that is clearest and least blurry is the your world.

(The more you learn about the characteristics of each of the three predominant worldview, the easier and more fun it gets to see the world from the perspective of the Wakefield Doctrine.)

Thanks again for the prompt.

#WakefieldDoctrine #theoryofclarksscottsandrogers #personality types

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, psychology of personality, self-development, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “…of style and substance/silk purses and sows ears/youth and wisdom”

October 19, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

I was talking to someone over the weekend about Friday’s post and, at some point in the conversation, I think it was when they mentioned, ‘Oh, I’ve already read it’, I said, ‘There was a time, back on the early days, when posts were all in the 300 to 500 word range’.

And it now dawns on me. ‘You want to know the real difference between old and young (sophisticated in contrast to raw energy/ practiced versus enthusiastic/and polished)?

The earliest Doctrine posts were brief and short* because the energy they contained/were manifestations of; the overt indications of a successful birthday party for a nine-year-old are in the volume of communications and extent of the disarray of the decorations, not the perfect coordination of the color of the table cloths to the icing that spells out a message of well-wishing and congratulations, taken as intended by no one in attendance other than the memory-echo of the guest-of-honor in the far distant future.

There! That’s why contemporary posts are in the twelve hundred to fifteen hundred word range.**

Surely that is as it should be; ‘youthful’ enthusiasm in expression trumping sophisticated crafting of ideas (for maximum appeal). Of course, it is the underlying energy of the idea of the Wakefield Doctrine that causes some people to read and enjoy. It.

lol

The backstory has always been presented, (and nothing in this essential regard has changed), that we³ discovered the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers) and the goal of this blog has always been to expose the maximum number of Readers to the fun and the benefits of the unique perspective inherent in the Doctrine. Yet, like discovering an old ‘letter sweater’ or cardboard box of trophies from high school⁴ there is a temptation to find a place for their display, despite the passage of time; as enticing as the idea may be, maturity usually carries the day.

So, since I’m approaching the five 100 word mark, lets leave it at this:

the Wakefield Doctrine is not an answer, it is a series of questions with as much a claim on practical value as: a Magic 8 Ball, a box of fortune cookies, the Oscar-Meyers-Briggs personality schedule or the NKJV… in other words, a hammer doesn’t need to be a nail to be useful in fastening things.

(quick explanation to one of more of the feetnotes: if you’re still reading and think you might stop back sometime, you are a clark(predominant worldview of the Outsider) or a scott(Predator) or a roger(Herd Member) with a significant secondary clarklike aspect.)

*the first of the deliberate style choices in adjectives, which, at their heart, were manifestations of my secondary scottian aspect… hey!

** the CMS clearly states: numbers are to be spelled out, numerals are never to be used except in cases of ….

3) the ‘editorial we’ is natural to clarks and is, in practice, a useful tool when trying to determine if a person is a clark or a scott or a roger. Whole ‘nother post, though.

4) yeah, like that’s gonna happen to the typical Reader of the this blog

#wakefielddoctrine

#theoryofclarks,scottsandrogers

#personalitytheories

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

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 17, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. Created by Lizzi back in aught nine or ten (don’t rightly remember, other than it was a time ruled by curiosity and the boundless enthusiasm available only to the very young or the congenitally-innocent. We did things that weren’t merely new in a personal sense, it was new everywhere. Like European settlers in the New World, except behaving more like old and distant friends stopping for a surprise visit, as opposed to the novice bank robber, who, upon being hit one of those paint things, gets angry and tries to wipe the paint off the currency, even as his cohorts are running for the getaway car… and becomes angry at the customers instead, despite the fact that they were in line first and, besides were now sitting on the chewing-gum stained marble floors.)

Like that, ya know?

Kristi is our host. And we are fortunate to have a person with her qualities of charitable patience (without the condescension some people decide to add to how they relate to the world, which then makes the best of human qualities not quite as good. Like trying to eat the intricate decorations off a fancy anniversary cake only to find out its made of that non-sweet, sugar-stuff.*)

One of the truly remarkable elements of this particular gratitude bloghop surely is the availability of something called, the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules). It is a tool, an insight, a permission for all who would participate to allow their imaginations to sit at the planning table (as opposed to the card table set half in the living room, a suburban Coventry for those whose only crime is to be too short and too young to sit with the ‘adults’). With the BoSR/SBoR, we are encouraged to not only share the people, places and things in our lives and world(s) that cause us to experience gratitude, but to be fanciful and daring in our public expression of a list of Ten Things of Thankful.

1) Una

2) Phyllis

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) and it’s truly unique concept of hypo-gratuitous items. (One of the reasons we’re still here, adding posts, years later, is that this is not your NVP version of gratitude appreciation. The TToT is grounded in the sharing of the people, places and things…. etc, but …but! it also recognizes that sometimes bad things happen. In all scales and import, everything from broken shoelaces to fatal illness. It (a hypograt) is a valid item to construct a TToT list.

5) might have baroqued that description of hypograts a bit much, but I have one to include in my list this week. The seeming wiping out of the stuff on my computer. That is a hypograt.

Short story convoluted: I took my computer into the shop for repair, ’cause it was slowing down to the point of futility. The people at the shop, they say, ‘Hey we might have to wipe out the drive to fix it** Don’t worry, you have a program that will totally back up everything so you can restore it all’. So I brought the computer home and turned it on and it was like one of those amnesia movies. It looked like my computer, but there was nothing on the screen that wasn’t on countless other anonymous, brand new, computers. My stomach rolled, but I called into the Savant Help Center and they continued the mantra, ‘Don’t worry. Click this and then click that to get the computer back. It may take a few hours.’ Three days later, after hours of moving the cursor a fraction of a millimeter to try and catch the progress bar in the act of moving… finally the moment came, it was done restoring. Except it didn’t look any different than it looked when I brought it home, (a living, breathing but scary-silent Timmy who didn’t ask, didn’t even look for Lassie). I called the Savant Help Line.*** For whatever reason, the person ended the conversation with a phone room sincere, ‘Sorry man, the stuff isn’t there to restore.’

6) Quick jump to Mimi. While all cohosts have this capacity, Mimi is for, me, the power of example of the ‘Transformation of Hypograts’**** Thanks M.

7) So, knowing that I have a choice, in the quality of the reality I exist, I sat down at my stranger-with-copper-disk eyes of a computer and found some peace in acceptance. Then, probably a necessary step, I blew on the spark of, ‘Most everything I had is out there in one form or another, maybe this is an opportunity‘. Finally, still feeling mostly-awful, I found the path to What-the-Hellville and threw out the alien stuff, ie FaceTime, a subscription to Herd Monthly and, even, the ‘Connect this to Every Other Device You Own’ app. Mostly, I restored my desktop photo, (the picture of Ola at the top of this post). I then started walking deliberately, (in a metaphoric sense), through the virtual world and managed to restore my Windows Office suite and my Scrivener and the other applications that seemed to have been lost. I felt good about doing that, and proceeded to reinforce one of the learning opportunities inherent in this TToT exercise and M’s examples, and appreciated what I had. Then, being a clark, I decided to try to get into the backup application. (It’s a combination of an external hard drive and an app on the desktop)…. I found the files I believed I’d lost.

8) Our having the good fortune to have, as part of our family unit, over the years, three perfect canines.

9) THIS SPACE AVAILABLE

10) Secret Rule 1.3

* not saying I ever tried to eat one… but it was not all that enjoyable

** people of a certain advanced tenure are encouraged to nod in restrained appreciation of the clever 70s cultural reference

*** hey, here’s a difference between the olden days and modern times… say you’re nervous or stressed the hell out and you need to make a telephone call. Today, if you’re stressed enough, you’ll like, totally misdial… shaky fingers will miss tiny buttons on your phone’s screen. Back in the day, you would’ve had the experience of your entire hand shaking as your dialing finger, trapped in a little circle on the metal dial. Then, when you’d had enough, you could try to get your index finger stuck in the next hole, to ride it around the dial

**** such an art, or more precisely, such a quality to have, that a person can transform a horrible negative into something that supports and engenders the positive. Still working on it.

music:

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: the Wakefield Doctrine

Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 16, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

Was engaged in a conversation with Phyllis this morning that inevitably came round to the Doctrine, I believe the touch-point was personal reality and it made me think of the early days of this blog.

Back then, the pace was…different, faster, in the way of running across a field of rain-soaked snow, you know, keep the speed as high as possible because the ten-year-old inside knew that it was possible, if you did it right, to lift your foot even as you stepped forward. At a running pace, you’d try to not put your full weight on the lead foot, and basically, hop over it.

The better to not get your shoes soaked in the grey-snow pools lurking between the tufts of grass that offered a dry passage.

….where was I?

oh, yeah , the early years and the kinds of things we’d write to get attention

clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel (err not exactly fire-in-a-crowded-theatre level on the provocative meter)

I got one! clarks are crazy, scotts are stupid and rogers are dumb (distinctly remember when I came up with that one… interesting, the scotts laughed but the rogers (the Progenitor roger, no less) got really mad.)

ok, ok, one more then a music vid and its off to work

‘Everyone lives in a perfect world‘

(I stand by this statement, but will provide a hint as to why its so terribly true: a) we all live in a reality that is to a small, but meaningful degree, personal and 2) the world we encounter is a reflection of us (including parts and aspects we may not be aware of).

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

Six Sentence Story -the Wakefield Doctrine-

October 15, 2020 By clarkscottroger

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

This is the Six Sentence Story bloghop.

Denise is the host.

The rules are simplest: take the week’s prompt word and write a story of six (and only six) sentences.

Pretty simple, isn’t it?

This week we return to the Order of Lilith for our serial story, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude‘ (backstory for new Readers under the title link)

This week’s prompt word:

FIELD

“Brother Abbott, you’ve served our Order faithfully since, well, since I was an acolyte, you know I respect you,” the Reverend Mother strained to smile sincerity, if not warmth, into her words but settled for a compression of lips and a momentary decrease in the intensity of her gaze, “however, the rules prescribing our course of action regarding your…guest, are clear.”

“I’m not questioning the wisdom of the elders,” Brother Abbott knew better than to react to the subtle change in the face of his superior, “There is something not right about this situation, not only the hunter we captured, but the time traveler she was stalking;” taking no pleasure in his superior’s fraying composure, suddenly felt both leg muscles galvanize him into standing position, a delayed reaction to his earlier comments about not getting enough sleep propelling him to the office door.

… appearing at the edge of the woods that surrounded the field through which Sarah and Katherina ran, hand-in-hand, the dark rectangle chilled the laughing joy streaming behind the ten-year-olds; a voice intruded, staining the pure light of a perfect summer afternoon, “Please, if you won’t convince your teacher I’m not a threat, at least talk to me, before they take me out to kill like a deformed foal.”

For most, dreams are nightly diversions by anonymous playwrights, to be enjoyed and forgotten in the commonsense light of day; however, when fatigue becomes excessive, these unconscious stories often adopt more personal themes and, in the hunt for satisfying plot devices, the subconscious author within us mines our deepest memories, harvesting the fields of broken loves and distant relationships.

Sarah heard her closest friend’s voice and, by a strength of will that brought her to the attention of the Order, and, enduring the pain of loss, doubled for the intervening years of loneliness, stepped out of her dream.

Facing the obsidian rectangle of the holding cell, she watched a single tear, ignited by the light of the anteroom, transformed into a falling star and heard, in the near-music of a young girl’s voice, “Make a wish.”