the Wakefield Doctrine

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

Don’t tell anyone, but these reprint posts, (or these posts that have a copy/pasted old Doctrine posts in ’em), are most useful in their capacity to jump-start my keyboard. It’s not so much there is anything new in today’s post. The style of writing is, well, that we have to admit, is noticeably different.

How different?

Let’s just go see.

(ok, to be fair, this reprint is only five years old. so maybe not so much in the contrast/’omg! you were so much funnier back in…’/of voice and style. probably due to the fact that the ‘voice’ in these posts first showed up in the very early years. There were ideas to explore, such as ‘the Doctrine and fairy tales’ or ‘the ideal vocation based on predominant worldviews’ that, in their very novelty, imparted a certain energy to the writing. That said, there have been some developments in the intervening years, better to call them refinements in our ability to express the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine, that are way helpful to a New Reader. First among these is the statement that ‘the Doctrine (and the three personality types) are about how a person relates themselves to the world around them and the people who make it up’ and ‘the Everything Rule’

So, enough of the new(ish) and the old (reprint) for this Monday. gotta go and write me some kinda pomé for this week’s Six Sentence Story,

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Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine- “… of development, writers clubs and understanding the world around us.”

July 23, 2018

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

Do we outgrow the past or do we simply forget? Do the improvements, growth and developments we achieve (through effort, ambition and circumstance) become like, well, the way it is.

We admit to a fondness for the occasional peculiar word or phrases that, although uncommon in everyday conversation, are fun. Today (in light of the opening sentences) the fun word/phrase/expression is raison d‘être. (which our friends at wikipedia define as  “…a French expression commonly used in English, meaning “reason for being” or “reason to be”.”)

The Wakefield Doctrine is the reason for the existence of this blog. All, and only, because it hit me one night that it would be good to ‘formalize’ my personal system for explaining the world and the people in it.

The Wakefield Doctrine holds that we are, all of us, born with the potential to experience the world as one of three characteristic realities. At an early age we ‘pick’ one of these three ‘worldviews’ and we are on our way to becoming clarks, scotts or rogers. The Wakefield Doctrine, as a personality ‘theory’, is not concerned with how you would describe yourself, the results of questionnaires created to identify traits and interests or even what you think that girl is doing sitting out there in the middle of the field looking back towards the house filled with people she may or may not be related to (well, sometimes we enjoy the traditional approaches; I mean, damn! give yourself away in one description much, clark? lol). Unlike other tools developed by psychology, sociology and phrenology, tools easily transposed to popular media such as ‘the Face Book’ where they lie, attractively packaged, club-shaped mirrors waiting for someone to notice, “Oh, honey! Come here! I found this personality test in my magazine and it so has you down to a T! Lets take it together. You first.”

Central to the hypothesis of the Wakefield Doctrine is the notion that we all live in a reality that is, to a certain degree, personal. Nothing weird, mystical or magical. Simply that if you and I are standing in front of the entrance to, say, a very popular restaurant, our experience of that moment will not be identical. The Doctrine takes this and jumps up above the individual and says, ‘Suppose the world was one in which individuals are separated from each other in a way not easily discernible or, better still, imagine that the life we wake up into after each sleep is that of the Predator, simple and direct, eat or be eaten; or suppose everything in the world is knowable and, to a degree established in a way that allows for complete agreement among like-minded people, that the universe is, in fact, definable and quantifiable.’

This is key to understanding the Doctrine. Children (you, me and the girl behind the counter asking if that’ll be Regular or Premium) all grow and develop (their) personalities in order to successfully interact with the environment that surrounds them. Social, physical, the whole thing. And this is done in the context of the nature and character of the world, as they experience it. These strategies evolve and develop into the style we refer to as our ‘personality type’.

I grew up in the world of the Outsider (clark). I developed a way of relating to the people and the world around me that permits me to stay out of the limelight (can’t have people pointing at me and telling everyone that we don’t belong) while at the same time giving me the tools and the drive to search for whatever it was that I didn’t learn when I was too young to realize it i.e. how to be a real person.

A friend of mine grew up in the reality of the Predator (scott). She’s a lot of fun to be around, gets more done in a morning than most people do in a week. She is always on alert, never is not paying attention to whats going on around her and everyone likes her…except for the ones who are terrified of her. Temperament is often un-fairly pronounced with the accent entirely on the first syllable… we prefer the word: mercurial. You want something done right away, you ask her and step out-of-the-way.

If you want that thing done right… you find my friend who grew up in the life of the Herd Member (roger). He will know how to do it so that the joints line up, the glue doesn’t stick out at the ends and it stays the way it’s supposed to be… forever. He knows the simple fact of the life that there’s a Right Way.  No, nothing as an alternative, no second-runner-up. One way. Fortunately, my friend has so many other people around him that grew up knowing that they all belong. Sure there’s minor disagreements over decor, but it’s all one big hap…. Herd. The world is good. Just have to understand.

OK enough for a Monday morning.

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

Let’s get started.

Full Disclosure: that should be ‘Let’s get re-started’.

The Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. As a perspective, the only requirement is to be able (and willing) to accept that the world being experienced by a another person is, in all likelihood ,to a small, but quite real degree…different.

At the heart of our little personality theory is the relationship between the world and the individual.

And, seeing how you, the Reader, are obviously possessed of a certain flexible intellect, to this description we will elaborate: the perspective afforded by the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine is concerned with ‘how a person relates themselves to the world around them and the people who make it up’.

There we go! Simple(st) of descriptions of the Wakefield Doctrine.

Seeing how we’re on such a roll and the keys on the keyboard are rising to meet our fingers. (lol … Old Irish blessing originated during the Great alphabet Famine of 1654), lets look at the three perspectives (relationships) of the Wakefield Doctrine:

1. the Outsider (clarks)
2. the Predator (scotts)
3. the Herd Members (rogers)

We are, all of us, born with the potential to relate to the world as one (and only one) of these three. However, we never lose the capability to relate to the world as do ‘the other two’. These potentials are referred to as secondary and tertiary aspects. If significant enough, it will make a scott appear rogerian, (at times, in certain circumstances) or, in our case, a clark act like a scott (at times and in certain circumstances).

This, (the effect of a significant secondary aspect), often leads to confusion among New Readers. Maybe they catch a roger sounding thoughtful to the point of empathizing or a clark being… pushy and in-any-available-face).

The cool thing about the Doctrine, especially for New Readers who are often overly-concerned with 1) ‘getting it right’ in the ‘which of the three are they’ challenge or b) determining their own predominant worldview, is that you can’t get this thing wrong.

Serially.

If you study the principles and learn the characteristics of each of the three, you will always, eventually, come back to the ‘true’ worldview. Thats because these personality types? They’re relationships not an aggregate of descriptions, total points on a questionnaire, the sum of an objective assessment that places a person (or you) in a category. One of three personality types indicated.

It, as we said at the top of this post, (for you speed-reading aka skimming-texts clarks out there), is all about: thinking how a person might deal with any situation/ what the person’s actions would likely be in response to/or how it feel to be….

(Our favorite ‘Pro-tip: Determining one’s predominant worldview: look at the person (or the mirror) and determine the ‘No fricken’ way’ (of the three). Now you have two. Side-by-each, like in the optometrist’s office, “How clear is this… Now, How about this?” The predominant worldview always ‘looks more in focus’. )

Enough for today.