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

Time of the year for one of the more fun holidays. No, not Boxing Day nor Black Friday or, even (the less popular, based on emergency room stats) Tag a scott Day.

We’er talking one of the Big Three (ok, maybe Four)… holidays that, when observed through the lens of a certain, pretty-cool-once-you-get-the-premise-and-a-few-typical-behavioral-markers, personality theory, causes a person to say, “Wait a darn minute! You said you’ve never heard of the Wakefield Doctrine or any of the three personality types!”

New Readers: the Wakefield Doctrine (‘the Doctrine’ to the cool kids) is an additional perspective on the world around us and the people who make it up. Short form: there are three personal realities in which we all grow-up, develop our social strategies and effective worldviews, these three are:

1. the Outsider (clarks) holdidayistically-speaking this person monitors and influences the experiences of those around them and nudges ‘the other two’ in whatever it is they, the clark, has decided is in their best interest, (unless, of course, the clark is in self-punishing withdrawal mode, then they will simply paint a un-ignorable bullseye on their back, in muted, but festive colors)

2. the Predator (scotts) holidayistically-speaking, this person is the essence of holiday celebration. Think Grasshopper and the Ant, only a lot of the Ants die trying to keep up with the Grasshopper who, for their part, isn’t irresponsible and lacking foresight, they’re just in it for the girls/guys  good time.

3. the Herd Member (rogers) holidayistically-speaking this person is the Ghost of (fill-in favorite holiday) Past, Present and Future. If there was a way to embody a recurring, socially-grounded celebration to include all of the benefits and only some of the cost, (to be paid on credit), here’s your guy/gal. Hell, if it wasn’t the Right Thing to celebrate, we wouldn’t be marking the calendar, now would we?

Anyway. Thanksgiving is approaching in Oceania. We will not squander the treasure trove of examples, illustrations, manifestations and indications of how the Wakefield Doctrine is so, so …prescient and totally ‘at-a-distant’ for human behavior. Stay tuned.

fun stuff