Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
Following is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to ‘the Unicorn Challenge‘
A photo-prompt bloghop, hosted by jenne and ceayr, it has the simplest of rules: keep it at (or under) 250 words.
“Fuck Plato!”
A startling, if not impromptu, demonstration of the First of the ‘Three Laws of Me and Them’ resulted in the flow of pedestrians rippling outwards around the shouting man. Early morning routines were disturbed. This perturbation demonstrated the Second Law* so directly, as to be evident to even Freshman pursuing a degree in Social Physics.
“You heard me, you Limey bastards!”
While it is beyond the scope of (this) Narrative to incorporate the countervailing social response to our serendipitous Subject, suffice to say, the outbursts continued until they reached a level that triggered the institutional responses consistent within the paradigm of Social Physics, including, but not limited to, the fundamental axiom of: ‘Why Shouldn’t I be Able to Enjoy a Quiet Walk, I live here too’ (Wakefield Doctrine, et al 2009-2024)
“Jaikey! Poor Sod.” Verbal reaction from those walking in the Edinburghian morning sun were thrown like road salt on a New England w\Winter’s sidewalk. The muted wail of emergency services reverse-doppler’d to where the man sat.
“It’s all bullshit, you know.” An indigent priest initiating Penitential Rites before an open air Nave in the 21st Century AD, the man awaited society’s response**.
* the Second Law (of Me and Them): All reactions of bystanders is amplified in an inverse proportion to the distance between Disturbance and Disturbed
** the Third Law (of Me and Them) [M∝T] the energy of the disturbance propagates if the Subject (Me) is known by or otherwise related to (the) Them
About clarkscottroger
Most entertaining story-ette.
ty
For once, Clark, I was in the zone, following and understanding your every utterance until you shattered my credulity with ‘ Edinburghian morning sun’. Auld Reekie’s in Scotland, laddie, we don’t do sun in the morning or any other time.
However, I class your Three Laws of Me and Them alongside Mr Asimov’s three on robotics.
ty, CE High praise for those of us (not counting exposure to a movie references to the Three Laws) who, as non-adults, devoured the nuts-and-bolts science fiction of the Golden Age (1940-1960)
(Coolest thing about the mutant writers here at ‘the ‘corn? I copy/paste/look up words and phrases from.the.Comments. lol And, it’s part of the fun… checked on Auld Reekie.)
Good on you for the suspension of (not so much disbelief as the need for ‘A’ to at very least be somewhere in the same zip code (or postcodes) as ‘B’) for the start of my story.
That surely deserves a ‘what could the author have been thinking?!?!!’
While it is established that I am a student of the School of Fiction (as Automatic Writing), I think you might enjoy a quick insight into ‘my process’ (lol only as an artisté, of course)
When I first looked at the photo prompt I saw, as did everyone else, a
reflectionshadow* of a man.But, for whatever reason, I immediately thought: Plato’s Allegory of the cave! …’cause, really, who wouldn’t? ( not counting, of course Margaret and Nancy… who as the Eagles would say, ‘their minds are definitely twisted…’
anyays once I had the Plato connection, I found the sense of the character… (in a bit of semi-deja vu) I connected the idea of subjective reality with Newton’s Laws of Motion
..the rest, well, just wrote its ownself, ya know?
* ok, a shadow… but what is a shadow if not a dark matter reflection in an anti-mirror, right?
Nicely done, as always.
Thank you, Mimi
Masterful in every sense and senselessness.
lol thank you
I really like the mock-official tone of this – the account could have been written as a dissertation by a ‘freshman pursuing a degree in Social Physics’.
Oh wait…
And top marks for ‘Jaikey’ – outstanding Scottish slang.
The lone voice ‘crying in the wilderness’ – was he indeed under the influence of John Barleycorn? – the easy conclusion of ‘Them’ that means no self-examination is necessary on their part.
Or was his transatlantic ‘Me’ really taking society to task for its many hypocricies?
I doubt ‘the man’ will like society’s response!
‘Limey bastards’ – I’m one of those!🤣
lol
Wow, Clark. That was a whirlwind of a story. Full of energy and emotion carried off beautifully by the incongruity of your register. That blending of officialese/philosophy/slang lingo takes this story into some kind of alternate reality. Plato eh? So that’s where your mind took you. And you think Nancy and I have twisted minds. 🙃
but, twisted in the good sense of the word!
lol