the Wakefield Doctrine

Wednesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 6, 2026 By clarkscottroger 3 Comments

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

You’re welcome.*

Since we got off track with yesterday being Tuesday, the most clarklike day of the week, we’re gonna make up for it here and simply make observations without contextualizing or dramatizing.

of course not, for this blog, (and the Wakefield Doctrine itself), to be wildly popular, we would need to be a roger. they, (the Herd Members), have the innate sense of vox populi**

But then again, clarks are not ‘people’, clarks are Outsiders.

And rogers, having the quality of the average, healthy socially adept person is anything but an Outsider. (Even a scott is not an Outsider, at least not in nature. They separation from the Herd quality of the scott is a choice, one might argue of a tactical nature.

What neither scotts nor rogers have that clarks do, is the intrinsic sense of the reasonable dichotomy of the Outsider, to wit: I awake this morning. In considering the day ahead, I think in terms of the ‘world out there‘.

(and we mean it. lol)

So we’re good with the size and scope of this blog, the Wakefield Doctrine. If for no other reason than the fact that it would not have been created by a scott or a roger for one very good reason: no need.

And…and!! the benefits, (to us as a clark who happens to be the curator of this thing of ours) include: having far greater access to other clarks (to identify with/learn from/encouraged by seeing their successes in negotiating the world).

that’s enough.

well, one more thing. we’re most proud of the discovery/understanding/appreciation of one characteristic of the rogerian predominant worldview, that is their tendency to ‘lash-out’ when uncomfortable/or in fear of losing the (social) spotlight. clarks frequently experience this when interacting with a rogerian friend and the conversation is totally positive and enjoyable and seemingly out of nowhere, the roger says (the equivalent of) ‘Yeah, you’re an asshole’ And, with equal abruptness (after the emotional snack/meal provided by the clark) continue the conversation.***

Anyway, the reason we’re proud of this particular insight from the Wakefield Doctrine is that most clarks, in the endless seconds following being lashed out at, are thinking, ‘What the hell did I do to bring that on.’

Now we know. Nothing. It was not us, it was them. (for some clarklike reason, speaking only for ourself, hearing this makes all the difference in the world.

Thanks! Wakefield Doctrine!!

*surely one of the most costly, if not damaging characteristic of the clarklike worldview is our self-effacing modesty. Just gonna leave it at that. If (you’re a clark) you know what that means.

** this is new (to us), i.e. the original and full expression is Vox Populi, Vox Dei (‘the voice of the people is the voice of God’)

*** classic ‘apology’ from the roger if called on this inappropriate attack: ‘Oh man, I can’t believe I said that‘

Filed Under: Lead Stories, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, self-improvement, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

Tuesday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 5, 2026 By clarkscottroger 2 Comments

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

Here’s a topic we used to focus on far more frequently than presently.

Prompted by, as we are grateful for Reader Comments: Mimi and Misky respectively:

“’As we experience it.’ Often the main point.”

“Aye. A good post: All reality is lived personally — but not all of it is shared.

Lets check the anchovies, see if’n we can get some further input.

ἡμέρα Ἄρεως -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘the day of the week most favored by clarks’)

August 1, 2017

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

So why is it that, of the three personality types, clarks look upon Tuesday as, perhaps, the best of all days of the week? Simple. The weekend-workweek transition day (Monday) has been survived, the focus on achieved (or not) progress day (Wednesday) has not yet occurred and the deceptively desirable end-of-workweek day (Friday) is still a distant dream.

Tuesday is all about optimism and promise. And clarks, well, clarks are nothing if not the embodiment of promise.* No, in our brief discussion this morning, ‘promise’ is decidedly a noun. And the context is social context-free! It is not about breaking a promise, making a promise, promising to better. It (the promise of a clark) is the potential… for (totally fill in the blank).

If anything, the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence. whoah! (whoah, indeed!) Damn, as often happens, I’ve stumbled into a topic that, like a quiet talk and a cup of coffee at the kitchen counter, the coming day still held back by the castellation in bleached oak of the cabinets bracketing the sink, the outside wall falls into the yard and the world yaws open, ever hungry for human time.

lol

Cliff Notes version of my tantalizing allusion: “…the promise inherent in the worldview of a clark is the event horizon of their existence.” clarks are always searching for something. Being of a rational bent (clarks think, scotts act and rogers feel), the sought-after thing manifests as knowledge/information. clarks are the insatiably curious of the three. The ‘something’ clarks seek is the thing that everyone around them appear to know already and, by tragic miscalculation, clarks assume is the knowledge that makes them, (scotts and rogers) real people. They must have been absent that day, when growing up and being taught about life, ya know. In any event, that is the singularity, the conviction that if they acquire more information, they might discover the secret and become a part of. Like the nearly-all powerful black hole, we cannot see it directly and so are left with the edge of endless appetite, like golem with a question mark impressed upon our foreheads.

* the natural tendency here is to interpret the word ‘promise’ as a verb, which totally changes the spin. That kind of promise is strictly of the domain of the real people, the scotts and the rogers. (“Hey, a promise is a promise, so get some clothes on an we’ll catch some breakfast” “Yeah, but you promised. I heard you promise. Everyone heard you promise. How can you do such a thing?“)

sorry, got waylaid by the phrase ‘the event horizon of their existence‘

Mimi keyed on one of the linchpins of everyone’s favorite personality theories, ‘As we experience it’. This is an oft-repeated phrase and are intended to provide a gentle reminder that one reality does not (necessarily) fit all.

Misky’s coda is a commonsense addendum for those, (perhaps new Readers excited at the notion of personal realities), who might see the principles here as license to snoop.

Thank you both for a rather sophisticated prompt for a Tuesday Doctrine post.

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: relationships, the Wakefield Doctrine, Understanding Human Behavior

RePrint(ish) Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 4, 2026 By clarkscottroger 4 Comments

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

Before we start-restart this here Doctrine post here, a word about demographics.

In the most direct/least-effective-way-to-attract-New-Readers way, we’ll suggest:

If you come back here, just one more time (and, no, not just click-and-flee but to read) then in all likelihood you are a clark.

(At the very least you have a significant secondary clarklike aspect.¹)

New Readers: the Wakefield Doctrine is a perspective, (quite voluntary, often challenging, entirely fun and worth the effort), on the world around us and the people who make it up. The Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the idea that there are three distinctive ways to relate ourselves to this world, as would:

an Outsider (clark) who/a² is careful to not come under hostile scrutiny** living in a world that’s a giant ‘Time-to-Open-Your-Presents’ birthday party in which the guest list is a random mix of those you wish were your friends/those you’re glad they’re not/who-in-their-right-mind-invited-them?!! (…all while parental adults, armed with video cameras and phones*** circle beyond the child-horizon, waiting for the opportunity to strike)
a Predator (scott) if you’re thinking about demonstrating an early grasp of this personality theory system…think again. No, wait, what are we typing?! This is the description of the scottian (pronounced: scoe-shun) personality, the Predator. They are not the adults hovering around in our more-autobiographical-example-than-we-realize example. a scott doesn’t think, they live (which is: to act on impulse/ to seek excitement and/or stimulation/ to engage with the world, either running after prey or running from (more powerful) predators
a Member of the Herd (roger) Yahtze! they’re the one’s with the cameras. they’re also the ones forming the ring of observers focused on every move our birthday boy/girl makes. These people, (well, ok, were referring to the kids, but they’re going to grow up and constitute the majority of the population and therefore determine the social dynamics of all subsequent celebrations (adj: rogerian pronounced roe-jeer-rian)

The fundamental principle of the Wakefield Doctrine is this: we all begin life with one, (and only one), characteristic relationships, aka predominant worldview. Since it is our relationship, the world accommadates us and takes on the appropriate complementary qualities and nuance and it is in this psycho-social context we develop our strategies for getting by/surviving/thriving in Life. One might say, we all have the perfect (ok, the optimal) personality for living the world as we are experiencing it.

damn! out of time. maybe next Monday we’ll do the RePrint thing tomorrow.

1) if this is the case, we can say with certainty you are reading in the company of clark (or in the after effects of hanging out with a clarklike friend

2) the Wakefield Doctrine is gender neutral (among other things)

** there’s another kind of scrutiny?

*** the 21at C version of a mace or a trident

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: clarkscottroger, personality types, the Wakefield Doctrine

TToT -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 2, 2026 By clarkscottroger 10 Comments

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

‘you talkin’ to me?’ (see Grat #7)

This is the Wakefield Doctrine’s contribution to the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop. Foundered by Lizzie R in 1887, this bloghop has consistently topped the lists of ‘Ideas That Need To Have The World Catch-Up’. But the concept was the key. (Remind us to tell you the story of the very, very beginning of this bloghop and how the required time to create and post a TToT list was drastically altered.)

Below are a list of Ten people, places, Things and events that have triggered a grat attack since last we posted.

1) Phyllis

2) Una

3) the Wakefield Doctrine

4) the Six Sentence Story blohop

5) follow-up photo on last week’s landscape project (an After-after)

6) speaking of landscapes and pine forests, we’re grateful for a woods that goes from ‘oh, how nice a garden‘ to ‘damn, hate to have run through this some night being chased by one of Nature’s scotts!

7) the photo at the top of this post is of a cow at Farmer Brown’s (not this Farmer’s ‘real’ name) We used to take Una for drives past the farm for her amusement.

8) something, something

9) Update on the frontlawn Meadow

ikr? a bit greener (which if put in the context of the last week or two of mid-March weather), I’d say that’s pretty darn encouraging

10) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) specifically, Secret Rule 1.3

music vids

Filed Under: Featured, Psychology, the Wakefield Doctrine Tagged With: personality types, the Wakefield Doctrine, three personality types, Understanding Human Behavior

Frydey -the Wakefield Doctrine-

May 1, 2026 By clarkscottroger 2 Comments

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

…the Wakefield Doctrine, besides being gender and culture neutral, is age neutral.

This is a very intriguing aspect of our little personality theory. Actually it, (the immunity to the effects of longevity on manifestation of characteristics), is not only interesting, it also serves to reinforce the basic tenants (lol… and tenets barum bump!) of the Doctrine umbrella.

To this point: since the Wakefield Doctrine’s division of all humanity into three personality types, (aka predominant worldviews), predicated on the character of the personal reality we experience, one might reasonably assert that we, all of us, have developed/acquired the perfect personality type… for the world we live in.

ed. that we’ve chosen a clark-centric RePrint in a post ostensibly about how the Wakefield Doctrine manifests at various stages of life, (aka growing, maturing and otherwise acquiring experience), is probably more telling than we’d like. But, what the hell, today’s Friday.

clarks -the Wakefield Doctrine- ‘hey, I’m good enough for my friends…so the heck with what you think’

September 16, 2015

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

(As so often happens, here at the Doctrine, a phrase popped into my head that seemed to be a whole Post…provided I could put into words the feeling that were [embedded] in said phrase. When I wrote today’s Post subtitle, I immediately had two thoughts, a) Readers are going to misunderstand and respond by saying, ‘aww, don’t feel bad, we all think you’re doing great’ and 2) I really need to get back to this kind of post, one that is written to the clarks who are encountering the Wakefield Doctrine for the very first time. And, of course, c) my own re-appreciation of how much things have changed since I first started writing this blog… not the content and nature of the Doctrine, rather the nature of the readership and, even more germane, the changes the Wakefield Doctrine has wrought in my own self. So, what say I give it try?)

When I was young(er), I retained an unshakeable faith in two things: a) my friends and b) my capacity to endure and survive. Now I am no longer younger. More to the point, (of this post), I am now possessed of an understanding of my predominant worldview (clark/Outsider) and that enables me to see a lot more of the ‘why’ of my behavior and beliefs, actions and responses to the people and the world around me. This is an improvement. This knowledge, this insight into the way that ‘I relate myself to the world around me’, does not, in and of itself, change anything. It does, however, make any desired change much more attainable and sustainable. That is the good of the knowing of the Wakefield Doctrine.

The title today? (And the introduction above, that suggests that perhaps writing a Post to appeal specifically to the brand new clarklike Reader, might be more difficult than I think?) All of what underlies, and thereby giving rise to the sentiment manifested in the subtitle remains true in me, in all clarks. I still have the …. er…. not so positive self-concept that is the initial premise shaping the worldview of the Outsider, and I still, very much value the friends that I have. Most of us, (including rogers and scotts), will recognize, in the second half of the sub-title an implication, a… ‘yes but’, a ‘hedge’, if you will, on the claim to being valued by others. There is something to the way the statement sounds that is a hallmark of the clarklike personality type. It’s necessary to a clark, this ‘hedging’ of a claim of self-worth or value (to others), a pre-defense defensive, if you will.

You want a physical example of what I’m trying to convey? (It’s also a primary characteristic of clarks.)

Watch a clark smile. Most of time, especially when ‘in public’ or not in a totally secure environment, which is pretty much everywhere except bed or the bathroom, clarks will smile by compressing the lips, putting a slight upwards motion to the corners of the mouth, while watching the other person very carefully. Hedging their bets. Being careful. Keeping the escape route viable. You know, as an Outsider, we’re all about interacting, all while keeping an eye on the door. Find me a classroom, I don’t care if it’s First Grade or Grad School, if the individual student is allowed the choice of seats, you will find a preponderance of clarks in the back row. Near the door. And while one might think that this choice is simply to avoid being noticed, one would be almost correct. It is, in fact, to provide the option to escape, to not be forced into the focus of attention.

That’s part of what the clark personality is like. Tomorrow we may look at scotts, ( ‘I think, therefore I scream‘) or perhaps rogers (‘there is no ‘i’ in herd, there’s only me and everyone like me’)

Since I’m doing kind of a old-style Post, I thought I’d include a music video, well, just because.*

*excuse me!! excuse me!! because, well, holy shit!! (lol) you want to know the real, totally-honest-to-god reason why I find writing Doctrine Posts so ….so incredible? Ok, so I’m finishing up the final edit and I decide… sure, lets keep the music vid, because I love the song. The last thing I needed to do was to find the ‘cover photo’, you know, the Post’s thumbnail that shows only on the landing page. Well I think, ‘lets look for an image associated with Grieg and ‘the Hall of the Mountain King’, (today’s vid)…at the top of the results page is a link to the wikipedia, so naturally I go to read it ( I’m a clark, remember?) anyway, here’s what jumped out of the screen at me, it made me laugh:

The piece is played as the title character Peer Gynt, in a dream-like fantasy, enters “Dovregubben (the troll Mountain King)’s hall”. The scene’s introduction continues: “There is a great crowd of troll courtiers, gnomes and goblins. Dovregubben sits on his throne, with crown and sceptre, surrounded by his children and relatives. Peer Gynt stands before him. There is a tremendous uproar in the hall.” The lines sung are the first lines in the scene.

Grieg himself wrote “For the Hall of the Mountain King I have written something that so reeks of cowpats, ultra-Norwegianism, and ‘to-thyself-be-enough-ness’ that I can’t bear to hear it, though I hope that the irony will make itself felt.” The theme of “to thyself be… enough” – avoiding the commitment implicit in the phrase “To thine own self be true” and just doing enough – is central to Peer Gynt’s satire, and the phrase is discussed by Peer and the mountain king in the scene which follows the piece.( italics added) (wikipedia.com)

…no!! really!! lol man! do I love this Wakefield Doctrine!