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

Wanna know the hardest thing about reaching a level of fluency¹ in the (principles) of the Wakefield Doctrine?

Seeing young clarks² out in the everyday world.

Seeing how this post is grounded in a emotional experience this morning, allow us to give the setting/setup.

For grocery shopping since ‘the Covid’ we’ve taken advantage of the local Stop’n Shop service of bringing the groceries to the car. Today we parked in one of the designated pickup spaces outside the main entrance. Picture a row perpendicular from the entrance, spaces opposite each other; a double row of cars, if you will. From where we were parked we had a direct view of the doors in and out. Fine. Usually the person who brings out the foodstuffs knows us and where we always park.

Today the person who wheeled the shopping cart out to the pickup area was a young male clark. Likely age: high school senior, college freshman*.

Thing about this morning was that in the pickup row there was one other car. And as it happened it was opposite mine. (Picture front bumper to front bumper).

The first thing (as he approached) was the look on the young man’s face: not fear, but concern at making the correct call as to which car was the one for the order he was delivering.

The last thing (as he finished his task) was the look on the young man’s face: not satisfaction, but relief.

(btw: upon my recognizing he was a clark and before he had to commit (to a car) I opened the trunk and waved. that’s the fluency thing. We identified him as soon as he stepped out through the automatic doors.)

Damn.

Sure, clarks think (and scotts act and rogers feel) does not mean that clarks don’t feel but, while we are free with emotions in the context of friends, the experience of seeing a clark exhibiting some of the less admirable qualities and …and! totally identifying with them can make us feel comfortable. If only the Wakefield Doctrine was available by private subscription to young clarks out there in their early, formative years.

1) fluency in the Doctrine: a level where you can ‘identify’ the other two without having to run a check list or otherwise compare observed behavior with examples of predominant worldview specific style of interacting with the world

2) the Wakefield Doctrine is, of course, gender neutral (among other qualities i.e. age, culture etc). How a person relates to the world around them is, in the most fundamental sense, as a lifeform first, then the other qualities. That said, there can be a heightened sense of identification with one who is the same personality type and the same gender.

* given he was a clark, the age range can be extended, say to college sophomore or… junior. Extra credit for anyone who can tell the New Readers why this age range is extended upwards rather than backwards