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

(well, because absolutely nothing says decadent excess better than a Faberge egg)

This is a Reprint Monday post utilizing a Tuesday post from 2016.

We trust no one will have an issue from this, close-but-not-quite, symmetry. (There’s an old saying, “If you think something is related to something else and are surprised, you just haven’t been paying attention.“)

Anyway. This post does require some familiarity with our little personality theory. However, as we’re stated countless times before, ‘Anyone coming back here a second time and reading the entire post is either a clark or a scott (or roger) with a significant secondary clarklike aspect’. Rather than the obvious, ‘What do you mean, secondary aspect?’ Let’s spend a minute considering reality.

For the Wakefield Doctrine, all reality is, at it’s heart and (on) the most intimate level, personal. Not ‘personal reality’ in the sense that one can claim fantastical abilities and magical powers, rather it is ‘personal reality’ in the ‘What the heck is that supposed to mean?!’

… (damn, always a way bigger topic to explain than it is to know), the point is: each predominant worldview, be they the reality of the Outsider(clarks) or the world of the Predator(scotts) or the life of the Herd Member(rogers) is as real as… real as burnt toast. Not a list of interests or inclinations, drives and impulses, tropisms or talents… the world(s) as described for each predominant worldview is as real as real. Than you very much. Furthermore, what makes us clarks, scotts or rogers, is not these qualities, inherited or imprinted but, what makes us clarks, scotts or rogers is growing up in one of the three worlds (personal realities). Because, this growing up always entails developing effective (give or take) social strategies and ways to interact with the world around us and the people who make it up.

A scott acts the way they do because such behavior is most likely to allow them to survive and thrive in the eat-or-be-eaten world of the Predator. And so it is with clarks and rogers. We are all sporting the personality type best suited to the reality in which we grew up and developed our style.

The take-away here? With an understanding of the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine we are able to know more about the other person than they know about themselves. More to the point: we are able to see the world as the other person is experiencing it. And, by doing so, better know ourselfs.

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

(new readers? note the throat tendons)

With all gratitude to Lewis Carroll and his timeless question, ‘why is a raven like a writing desk?’ I would pose the semi-rhetorical question: What does a scottian woman sound like when she tries to speak rogerian?

“Now has never been a better time to…!”

See?! See what I have to contend with? A reality full of Doctrine remnants, relics, and large-sorta-like-in-the-movie-‘Alien’-these-scary-organomechanical structures?

I’m at work today, trying to earn a living. In the process doing the thing that I do, stumbled upon agent website and written across the front, the above (example is abridged) statement, accompanied of course with a very good photo of the afore-referenced scottian female.

If you’re here (and still reading), I’ll assume you’re familiar with one of primary (and, frankly, endearing) characteristic traits*  of those who live in the worldview of the Herd, the rogerian expression. It’s a form/style/idiosyncrasy of language totally specific to our herd-based brethren. Hell, I’ll go further and say that hearing a genuine rogerian expression makes it a leadpipe cinch that you’re dealing with a roger.

But a rogerian expression is more than simply a curious (and amusing) quirk in one’s choice of words. It is not an error (grammatical, rhetorical, any other -cal), it is a deliberate use of the ‘wrong’ words. It is also quite the aggressive act, because even, (and especially face-to-face), the roger employing the expression will exhibit not the slightest sign of self-consciousness or un-certainty. If anything, they will be ‘on high alert’. We students of the Doctrine are trained to watch the roger in a situation where a rogerian expression is being deployed, because we know how everyone else will react. rogers will appear not to notice anything out of the ordinary and the clarks and scotts will be laughing in delighted surprise. Don’t believe me?  Here, in the block quotes, are a few of the rogerian expressions that we’ve recorded.

…looking at his paycheck, a roger was heard to say: ‘oh man! Look at how much they deducted for aggravated security’

…talking about  a new DVD release for a movie: ‘no, I’m going to wait until they release the un-abashed edition’

…about to talk to a client: ‘I know I have to give them the bad news with the good news, I just won’t baby-coat it’

(and the most recent recorded rogerian expression)…

…writing in a blog about how egotistical certain real estate agents tend to be an unknown roger wrote: ‘ I have to say that, as a professional class, most agents are much too self-absorbent…”

 

But this post is not about rogers and rogerian expressions, it’s about scotts and their misuse of language. A scott will misuse language incidentally, on his or her way somewhere else.*  The key difference may seem subtle, as in both cases the malapropism represents an act of aggression. The rogerian expression is a way to exert force within the herd; the goal being to establish dominance over other herd members. Unlike the scott, rogerian dominance is a re-orienting of the focus of the members of the herd, as opposed to the starkly and very intimate one-on-one domination by a scott.

So what does this say about our scottian woman? You best bet is to smile and say, ‘there is no better time than this to do whatever it is you want me to.’

 

*  see?!! it gets under ya skin, I tells ya!

** if you said, ‘yeah 20 feet through the air, on their way for a permanent landing the neck of their unfortunate prey’…. gold star, yo.

*