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

Here’s a reprint that’s fun for two reasons: a) it’s about clarks(Outsiders) and 2) it, written quite early, (July 2013), it contains a line that caused me to say to myself, (not certain who I was addressing*), “Hey! You will develop ‘the Everything Rule’ to account for that aspect. Still a couple of years in your future. But, because you went ahead and did, we totally know, not only what you meant, we appeciate the implications. Wait, sorry, is this thing still on?”

lol

Best we be bringing on the reprint, non?

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

We all now know that the Wakefield Doctrine is fun…these last few weeks (especially the weekends), bear ample witness to this aspect of our personality theory.

We all also know that the Wakefield Doctrine is unique.

But the productive quality of the Wakefield Doctrine, Is it useful? Does it aid in (one’s) effort to develop and self-improve oneself? That is a totally unequivocal ‘yes! it surely does!’ But none of these three rhetorical questions are the focus of today’s Post!  The focus of today’s Post is, as our title clearly states: with progress comes resistance.

So here’s the thing. I’m a clark.  I have always wanted to do better. Improve myself. As a child (ages 5 through 17) it was about improving in order to meet (and exceed**) my parents expectation. From my grades in school to my activites in high school, there was always a part of me that wanted to do better. Now, you rogers out there are thinking, ‘ok, good premise, promising start but you need to clarify make it clear what all this means, otherwise. you’ll lose your audience‘. Alas, there is no answer clearer than this: I wanted to do better and to make my parents and family proud of me.

Now this ambition, especially in a child, is very common and not unusual. Children want to be valued members of their families and such. My problem wasn’t that I was un-able to try and make my parents and family proud of me (and later in life, make my friends and girl friend/lover/wife proud). No, my problem wasn’t that I was un-willing to try! The problem was that I couldn’t deal with success.

When a clark succeeds, (in doing more, acting differently, changing lifelong patterns) something happens. When a clark manages to do what no one thought for a second they could do (no one but the clark in question). When a clark changes and acts and feels and interacts with the world on a different level, in a different way, there is resistance. Resistance from friends, resistance from work, resistance from family. This is not to be too metaphysical …just resistance.  (Longtime Readers of the Wakefield Doctrine will remember a story I related about how, in high school I asked a girl out, got stood up and, in my response to this very, very common life-event, sealed my fate as a clark,
Well, there is a part of the story I left out. Before getting stood up, I had to ask to borrow the family car. I was successful in doing so. And I felt really good, really…normal. It’s what teenage boys are supposed to do. But then I said something to a sibling, words to the effect, ‘hey, you’re going to have to start dating soon’. clarklike readers are cringing at this point, so I will move on. rogers and scotts? hold this scene in your mind.)

My little description about the resistance of the world to change is nothing especially insightful. Everyone encounters this resistance to change, scotts do and rogers do. It’s just that for clarks, there is a moment, a moment when the world pushes back and says, ‘whoa there. hold on now. don’t you think you’re getting a little too big for your britches‘  and, for many of us…. for me, including the unpleasant outcome of the story I am using as an illustration, there is a feeling that comes back on us…’they’ve been humoring me, all of what I thought was a better me…they are laughing‘

It is not a good feeling.  (the Progenitor roger coyned the perfect expression: “my head swelled up and my face fell”).

Most of the time, we put up a brave front and at the first opportunity, run and hide.

But this is different. This Wakefield Doctrine is different (and fun and useful). I still have those moments of thinking that I am acting the fool, that I am not changing the world for 2 or 7 or 29 people. I still have the stomache that comes from thinking… “you’re being such a clark“.

But this is Doctrine thing is different. I mentioned this to another clark… rogers and scotts still reading? this will not make sense…at any rate, I was doing something exuberant at the Facebook…I think it was writing something I thought was especially clever when Kristi was having her blog critiqued by the blogging bloppers.. there came a moment, when I pushed the envelope and that part of me whispered, ‘now you’ve done it, you’ve gotten offensive and stupid. you have alienated everyone‘.

The old feelings started to rise, but (for the first time in my life), I found myself thinking, ‘well then, I guess I’ll jusy have to get another set of everyone’

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine.

 

** it’s always exceed, isn’t it?

*given the flexibility of our chosen view of reality and the world and such, no telling who…. us the author of the post or us, the collective Readers of the reprint or, even, us from some point further up the timeline…