humor | the Wakefield Doctrine humor | the Wakefield Doctrine

Ten Things of Thankful -the Wakefield Doctrine-

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

This is the Ten Things of Thankful (TToT) bloghop, created by Lizzi, following a walk alongside storm-battered cliffs, on the Manchester-Manchester England seacoast. Little did she realize how in a scant eight or eleven years, the bloghop that did speak it’s name would be hosted by Dyanne.

Now, at the beginning of the second decade in the beginning of the Twenty-first Century, the gathering of words would continue.

 

1) Una

2) Phyllis

3) the Book of Secret Rules (aka the Secret Book of Rules) which permits, (albeit, grudgingly), the remainder of this list of grats to qualify under a set of rules that would put the Queen of Hearts to shame, i.e.  the use of hypograts. This refers to those people, places and things that occur to all of us, whether we want them to or not. (Mostly not). But the BoSR/SBoR maintains that we are all gifted with the transformative power of perspective. Which allows us to put things into a context that nets out positive.

4) The difference Time makes. Category: Harmless unless, that is, the question is asked, ‘But what other biases and prejudices are the necessary foundation for any given humor. (Precursor conditions of audience: sub-adolescent Y-Chromian, coming to age on the Eastern shore of Oceania.)

Exhibit 1:

5) The difference Time makes. Category: the foibles of previous generations hang on to the umbilical of nostalgia in the seemingly-innocuous panels of newspaper cartoons. Freely-available insight into the reality of different times in a given culture, if such would be your interest. And although it is very much ‘preaching to the elect’, all one need do is look back at what passed for humor, entertainment and standards for social interactions. Though we very much caution: it’s easy to think, ‘We’ve certainly developed as a society, we don’t have gladiatorial spectacles, at least not so far as to actually kill people in the process’. However, if we but look to recent history (20th Century), it’s quite apparent how tenaciously the past holds us in thrall.

Exhibit 1: Dagwood Bumstead, abused at work, with a King Kong of food obsessions. The guy can’t catch a break! His boss, Julius Dithers, has actually kicked Dagwood across the office; granted, Dagwood was sleeping at his desk. But still. And Blondie, totally passive aggressive enabler, has a catering business. Denial much?

6) the serial stories, ‘the Whitechapel Interlude’ and ‘the Case of the Missing Fig Leaf

7) the Six Sentence Story The place for flash fiction…as a writer or a Reader

8) this year’s Garden of the Triffids (so far)

9) something, something

10) Secret Rule 1.3

 

music

*

 

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Share

(BONUS Post-ette included today!!) the Wakefield Doctrine “1st Annual Black Friday Video Chat…Tonight! at 7*”

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

The-Barnes-Foundation-FirstFriday3.1-680uw

Hey!  Tomorrow  Friday   Tonight as in later in the same day as you are reading this here correction in….from  (unless, of course, you forget and don’t read this Post until tomorrow, the forget about it) ….November 29th  ( 29-Nov-13 to our International Friends) at  7:00 pm*  First Annual Black Friday Video and X-rated Movie Festival!!

BONUS new material!***

Speaking of contributions from Downsprings,  had an interesting and challenging discussion with Phyllis the other morning regarding rogers. For some distantly related reason Phyllis said that ‘rogers are mean’. Out of the context in which this sentence was made, this statement, ‘rogers are mean’ demanded consideration. For if a statement is true about one form, what does it tell us about the other two forms? So from that Phyllis’ single statement we jumped to the following:

rogers are mean, scotts are cruel and clarks are heartless

So, lets consider these statements.
We start with the premise, i.e. when one (of us) chooses to be unkind to another, what is the characteristic of the behavior relative to our type. (Or may I could just say, why are clarks heartless and scotts cruel and rogersmean, instead of say, clarks are cruel and rogers are heartless etc)  ( Update:  The current preferred way of expressing this:  how do each of the three ‘manifest’ the state of ‘to negatively affect another’ This is a result of the understanding that ‘everyone does everything at one time or another’. )

‘Rogers are mean’ because when they want to negatively affect someone, they do it within the context of the herd. They will gossip and talk among each other about the target (of this negativity). They will never go up to the target(person) and say ‘you are a slut’. Instead they will say to each other, ’isn’t she such a slut’? It will be the group opinion that will constitute the negative effect. In other words, if an outsider comes on the scene and and needs information reagrding this person, the herd will make a point of offering an opinion. ( as in:  “hey, clark! because I’m your friend and no one will say this, I think I owe it to tell you that everyone thinks you’re a slut. Not that I agree with them, but I am your friend” )  Updated 11.29.13
(Now class, why is that so rogerian?)
(God, I so love to lecture)

The answer is, of course, because the effort to affect a non-herd member is always done among and within the herd. No single member (of the herd) could or would approach the ’target person’ directly and certainly would not say anything to their face.

All right, then how about scotts? Why cruel instead of heartless or mean?
Because it is the nature of predators, to act alone. Granted scotts will gather in packs when the occasion rises, but for the most part they hunt alone. And when a scott is being ‘negative’ it is expressed in a manner that can only be called cruelty. Part of this is the result of the fact that scotts will act directly but impersonally. They enjoy the efforts of the prey to resist, hey that squirming and trying to get away is the damn relish. But its nothing personal, the scott is hungry and the prey is food. So in the case of scotts, this cruelty is the ‘way of nature’ cruelty.

Clarks? Heartless? No! Say it ain’t so!! If any Reader needs it explained, then you need to read the content in these Pages a bit more.

So leave a Comment let everyone know if you are intending to join us tomorrow… you may regret your rash decision, but hey, that’s what the Wakefield Doctrine blog is for!!

(I’ll be back in the course of the day today, will have more details and and insights and outrageous assertions as, I trust you have all come to expect from everyone’s new favorite Doctrine, the Wakefield Doctrine continues it’s coverage of this first of ‘the Big Three Holidays)

(back) So what do you have to look forward to from the Wakefield Doctrine this Joyous Winter Season?   more scott and more roger!  you do recall that the Doctrine holds that we all have (the potential) inherent in all three worldviews, don’t you?  and you remember what we said about using the Wakefield Doctrine as a tool for self-development, right?  (i.e. ‘simple as can be, harder than anything you have ever tried to do’…that) Well that’s what we are going to be spending your valuable blog-reading time over the next 6 weeks or so. Plan accordingly.

 

(back)  I know that I write every year about parades… (rogerian essential) but my god!! where the hell is Child Protection services?  those poor children… 3 hours walking the streets of New York City , in 30 degree windy temperature all for 5 seconds ‘in frame’ in front of Macy’s so the folks back in Indiana can say ‘look!! it’s Tracy!!! what the hell’s the matter with her face?’
On a personal note: the over-hormoned 23 year old inside of me died a little late this morning as I sat in stunned disbelief as Joan Jett stood, singing, on a frickin float…. not a cigarette or ‘record machine’ in sight…waving at the crowds with a blank look on her still very attractive face…

(back) (…again!)  that ‘cover photo? the one with the Delegates from Slovenia?  that goes back to the early days of this blog. we had a thing about Slovenians!!  (a good thing, nothing bad…just a fun kinda affectation.) will tell you more in a little bit

 

* For the time-zone impaired:

  • Jak!! yo!!! that means  6:00 pm  Twin City time
  • Stephanie?  I believe you will have to stay up kind of late… this being like 2:00 am (!) in your time…. well, there’s always the Sunday Video Brunch (which is 3:30 pm local  i.e. your local )
  • Molly?  yeah… I know we’ll need to co-odrdinate on the google circle thing, but these Video chats are kinda fun… for you  it would be 5:00 pm  stop in while fixing dinner…if your phone can handle google hangouts
  • Michelle?  wakey wakey!!   8:00 yo
  • Lizzi?  it’s a Friday night! you get to stay up late ( sorry if we appear to be assuming that you would have nothing more…. exotic…exciting?  better to do on a Friday night!  12 Midnight!
  • Melanie  a late night rendavouz with what I trust is the oddest group of people you know
  • Christine… you know that we totally would love to have you join us…but it will be either 6 or 7 pm your time, so I suspect that you’ll be in the middle of dishes and homework and such… but if you do get a chance…on your phone  come hangout with us!
  • Kristi   oh Kristi!  come out and plaaay
  • Richard oh Richard….  lol  you know it would be fun

**  ‘cept for Zoe… she has a very rare, ‘Join in late Card’  a privilege enjoyed by few, so step carefully when you join the brunch!  lol

 

*** well, ‘new’ in the sense that if you were born anytime after, say… I don’t know  2011?? then this is totally new and original!! hey, it’s a great insight from a DownSpring so ya better appreciate it …you know how hard it is to get a roger to say anything that amounts to more than ‘I told you so…’??!  I didn’t think so…. so read and comment, already.

 

 

Share

“So may I introduce to you, the act you’ve known for all these years” the Wakefield Doctrine …and roger makes three

Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory, the observation... the perspective, on the way that people relate to you and to me, through the filter of their personal realities   (as) clarks, scotts and rogers)

The Wakefield Doctrine proposes that, if you have the imagination, (and the inclination), you can understand the people in your life more completely by viewing their actions and behavior as occurring within a certain context.  The Doctrine maintains that there are three  contexts, or worldviews. They are:

  1. that of the Outsider, ( ‘I am here and the world is out there‘ ) …only a clark can say this and believe it
  2. the Predator and  (‘I scream, therefore I am’ ) …only a scott will wonder what the fuss is about
  3. the Herd Member. (‘as it was in the beginning, so shall it be’) only a roger would not feel the limitations inherent in this

…with knowledge of the characteristic behavior of  each, you can infer which of the three worldviews is operative (for the other person). You will then be afforded an insight into, not only to a host of (other) personality traits and behaviors, but the very rationale upon which the person bases their decisions and strategies.

“…and the hiring Committee said that they had never encountered a candidate for the position who was better qualified. I knew that my academic record showed well, but they really seemed to be impressed and so I got the position, which was more than 2 years ago. They say that if the CEO acquires the new Company, he and his CFO will most likely move their base of operations out to the coast and I will be asked to step in as the acting CFO.

Mel was glad he was invited to this party. When he first arrived, he had doubts that it was such a good decision. The host, who actually arranged for his own birthday party, stood outside the function room (the Samba Room) and seemed an interesting enough person, in a loud, immature sort of way. Preferring to get to any function exactly on time, Mel initially felt a bit dismayed at how lame the people seemed to be.

…and when I told them that there was no way I would accept...”    Mel stopped mid-sentence, as everyone in the group surrounding him started turning away.  Almost as a group, they were looking towards the double door entrance to the Samba Room. Clearly something was going on, he could see people leaning towards each other, elbow-nudging and whispering, in that ‘this-is-private-let-me-tell-you-a-secret’ way of talking that he hated to see in other people.
Setting his half-empty plate, (the Hors d’oeuvres were passable, the Brie was laughingly  sub-par), on the condiment table that he was using as a makeshift lectern, (the sugar packets were very useful in illustrating the field of competition that he had to overcome to reach his current position), Mel pushed past the new Intern from the Accounting Department and stepped in front of a young woman from the Research Department ( He made a mental note to talk to her later. She was very attractive, in an odd way and seemed to be very bright, but hardly spoke above a whisper. Mel thought that she might be worth investing some time in,  he couldn’t remember her name.)
Mel reached the outer edge of his group in time to see a woman standing just inside the entrance area of the room. She was stunning.
There was an energy coming off her that Mel couldn’t recall ever seeing in a person. (A memory of a trip to the Zoo when he was 7 years old flashed through his mind. He was standing in front of the big cats area and feeling let down and very disappointed that there were no lions or tigers fighting in the open area. Holding his mother’s hand and standing where he could see the whole area, only the moat and a fence down about 15 feet from separated them from where the lions were supposed to be and he couldn’t see anything. Just as he started to complain to his mother, something moved and he realized that there was a lion sitting under a bush the whole time.  Once the lion moved, he could not take his eyes off her. Finally, the lion got up and walked back into the fake cave enclosure, but not before making eye contact with the 7-year-old child. Mel never forgot the way he felt that day when he made eye contact with the lion.)

“…is that Ms. Delgiudice?!”  “…no, way!”  “damn, you know that is her! ..”dude, your Department Head is sorta hot,”  “what do you mean sorta, Esé?”  “no, our Department Head clearly is, in fact, smoking hot…”

Dismissing the growing chatter that was springing up, all focused on the newest arrival to the party, Mel turned back to his group. Somehow, the group seemed to break up into smaller units, people pairing off and moving in a ‘slow-motion-pinball’  kind of way, towards the front of the room.
Mel spotted the girl from the Research Department, standing in the exact same position she was in before the group began to disintegrate. She was looking around the room, but her eyes were moving at a different rate than her head, and she seemed to be smiling. Not at him, not at anyone apparently, simply smiling.

Mel walks over to where the girl is now standing by herself and says, “Hi! I’m Mel, this is getting to be a pretty good party, no?” Despite being the only person within 15 feet, the girl seems, somehow startled at Mel’s greeting. She looks at him, looks down to her left, a very fleeting smile passes across her face and she looks up and, compressing her lips in an odd smile/grimace, says, “Oh yeah!, hi! I’m having fun and you?” There is a moment of silence, both in the room and between Mel and his new companion.

Ms. Delgiudice is really something, isn’t she?” the girl is looking towards the new center of the party, on the other side of the room as people headed, much as do moths.  “I just interviewed with her, trying to see if I could move from Research to her Department, and she was very encouraging and I think that maybe that is really where I belong, if I am going to stay with the Company.”

Mel smiled…

(…to be continued)

 

Share

(a) Lingua Franca of personality theory, the Wakefield Doctrine ( …this Ad will end in 7…6…5…5…5 seconds

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

There was a time when Saturday was the best day of the weekend…no, make that the best day of the whole week. Saturday was a day off from school and work and, unlike the other weekend day…Sunday,  there were no specified and/or required activities. Now that did not mean there was nothing to do!  Saturday was a day filled with chores, tasks, projects, lunch without napkins, using the bathroom (indoors or out) without asking permission…in other words a busy day, but in a way that you hoped (your) adult life would be when you grew up. Looking back, there was an odd…symmetry, orderliness…something about the Saturdays I remember,  that I would  love to have back.
…the day always started in front of the  TV.  And it was  not  ‘today’s weather is brought to you by…” or  “today’s Top Scary Story…” (hell! in those days there were no news shows on until Sunday morning!)
Saturday mornings were all about the cartoons!  And maybe some live action shows mixed in as we got older…and there was always, without fail,  TV-time spent with a very famous trio… the Stooges!   and not the ones with Shep…(those episodes were somehow too …organized, logical  or something that tried to have the stories make sense…which to a 5 year old is so unnecessary!)
Breakfast on the couch or the living room floor… ( that was the right way to start the weekend! )
Later in the morning, once the adults were up… there were almost always chores assigned to family members, but even these required tasks were nothing like the rigid, regimented ‘task-specific hour followed by task-specific hour’ of the weekdays.
Saturdays were fun.

This Post is not about the non-work, non-school free activity of Saturdays. It is more about the ‘centering of the day’ that my memory of Saturday seems to hold. The Saturdays that I remember, while (mostly) un-structured and generally without a rigid schedule always contained a definite focal point. (And this is where things get odd).  When I look back on my memories of Saturdays, it seems that the focal point of the day, all the daytime activities were, somehow, centered on my parents ‘going out for the evening’.
This is odd,  if for no other reason than the fact that my parents ‘went out for the evening’  maybe 2 or 3 times in the entire year. But that is where my memory of Saturday takes me. That and  ‘stopping by the dry cleaners’.  Now that we all live in the advanced and evolved future that is the 21st Century we can be grateful that langauge has advanced to include an expression that is perfect for this point in today’s Post…WTF?
Seriously! Why should I have ‘stopping at the dry cleaners’ as the primary childhood memory artifact in my brain right now? And…and it’s not just me!
Stop reading…go to ‘the google’ and in the search box type in ‘Saturday Chores’ and then search ‘Images’
See what I mean? …sure there are a lot of different images, lots of mowing lawn photos and raking leaves but count the photos of dry cleaners! And all the cute photos of Post-it notes on the refrigerator…. what item is on all those Post-it notes?… (yeah, I know it is a little creepy…they are so messing with our minds).
But that is what I have for childhood memories of Saturdays. A day where life is not a test…where what we do is not being graded…a day that does not have to be assessed in terms of ‘did I get everything I wanted to do done”?

And this is about the Wakefield Doctrine, how?
lol
…when I started writing this Post, ‘the Point’ was going to be about how you should call in tonight to the Saturday Night Drive Live Blog Post show… (the secret phone number is here somewhere, or just write us a Comment or ask one of the others… DS#1 or Molly or if you have the nerve… Ms AKH.)
But as often happens, the topic changes on it’s own somehow by the time I get down here at the end of the Post.

Now I am thinking what does the imaginary Saturday depicted above tell us about the Wakefield Doctrine’s use today, right now…in our lives? (Quick bullets points…)

To get the most out  of today/Saturday:

  • let the scott out to play
  • look to your clarklike aspect, to think of things to do
  • know that you have a rogerian side to your personality and that is this part of you that will get the chores done and enjoy doing them
  • send the clark-part of your personality to keep an eye on your scottian side…clarks know how scotts think and scotts know that they do and will listen  to a clark so more than to a roger
  • …there is a Three Stooges show on somewhere…find it…watch it… let them start your day off the right way

 

Share

‘Sleep with one eye open…’ learning the Wakefield Doctrine, the good, the bad and the scary

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

(Funny thing about producing videos for Video Friday, sometimes the idea for a video is fully formed and all the effort is easily directed at execution, i.e. taping and up-loading and editing. Other times there is not the slightest hint of an idea or topic and we simply do something and post the results. And then there are the times….)

The video Post intended for today’s Video Friday post will not be seen today. Last observed floating into the ether, all attempts to download, re-load, upload or otherwise publish this 20 minute exposition on the value and utility of the Wakefield Doctrine have met with failure. Further efforts to re-create, simulate or otherwise try to salvage the video have been postponed indefinitely.
Instead we will have an encore1 presentation of the wildly popular…Saturday Night Drive  Episode…

Well, that certainly was refreshing!

(….the Post Title?  Why do you think it should have anything to do with content?  …oh!  You are a new Reader…that makes sense… I can see why you might wonder if there is a connection.  Funny you should mention that… )

How To Tell (if you are in a converstion with) a clark:

  • measuring the level of eye contact involves the use of imaginary numbers and the ( negative of ) the square root of pi
  • the density of verb modifiers ( both legitimate adverbs and illegitimate-made-up-adverbilizers ) is higher than Lindsey Lohan at the Norml Annual Lifetime Achievement Awardssss
  • seemingly random references in support of the main topic of the conversation, (op. cit.  Gibbon’s Rise and Fall of the Klingon Empire)
  • the ability ( and willingness )  to continue a conversation that was interrupted 4 months ago…
  • for conversations involving 2 clarks, the tendency to ‘bump into each other’ (conver.. uh sorry…conversationally) speaking
  • funny, funny asides…totally without regard to the seriousness of the conversation… ( “hey, she always said she would die of cancer…joke’s on her, no”? )

The Post Title refers, in a general sort of way, how each of the three personality types view dreams…  further questions on this topic should be addressed to Molly  (who is  said to be considering the position of HeadMistress of the (new) Wakefield Doctrine Early Ed Program…)  of course, if your questions are of a more…dynamic  nature ( relating to dreams and such )  you might want to ring up Ms. AKH.  …and if you are in a total rush and just want the ‘down ‘n dirty’  try  Alx C.  that boy will set ya straight on what to dream about and how to not get caught doing it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH8-DZ2W17c

1)   encore (interject) 1712, from Fr. encore “still, yet, again” (12c.), generally explained as being from V.L. phrase *hinc ad horam “from then to this hour” (It. ancora “again, still, yet” is said to be a French loan-word).

Whenever any Gentlemen are particularly pleased with a Song, at their crying out Encore … the Performer is so obliging as to sing it over again. [Steele, “Spectator” No. 314, 1712]

Share