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Finish the Sentence Friday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

November 17, 2017 By

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

Sometime in February/March of 2013, I worked up the nerve to participate in my first bloghop, Finish the Sentence Friday. Hosted at that time by Janine, Kate, Stephanie and Dawn, joining in marked a transition in my online life. Up until then, starting June 9th 2009, (come on, everyone remembers their first blog post…right?), I devoted my time in the ‘sphere to writing posts about the Wakefield Doctrine. For whatever reason, I worked up the nerve to go over to their blog (yeah, the high school metaphor’s been with me from, like, the minute I turned the computer back on.*) and I wrote my first Finish the Sentence Friday post.

Since that time, I’ve met some very remarkable people and have become friends with many of them. And that’s where the temptation to indulge in metaphor begins. Meeting new and interesting people, not something I’m naturally inclined to do.

“But it wasn’t a dream — it was a place.

         And you — and you — and you — and you were

         there.” (Dorothy Gale)

Kristi was gracious enough to invite me to co-host the Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop this week. In part, because I’d returned to joining in on Fridays and, one Friday, a few weeks ago, I threw out a sentence fragment in a comment and Kristi replied, ‘Hey, I like that! That might make a good sentence fragment.‘ So, here we are.

(Can’t say enough about Kristi other than, if I knew about her and wasn’t already a friend, I’d be too intimidated to introduce myself. But that’s getting ahead of the sentence fragment. Suffice it to say, Kristi Campbell is one of the most able women I know. I consider myself fortunate in being allowed to hang out here. So join Kristi and me at the best of all bloghops…. the Finish the Sentence Friday.

“A study released by the Department of HHS reports that most people consider their online relationships comparable to their social experiences in high school… this is true because….”

...For some of us, the virtual world is not simply a place drawn in phosphorescence and LEDs, binary yes(s) mating with stubborn no(s), a place of mathematical precision and statistical approximations of feelings and intuition. For some of us, its a reality of metaphor and stories. The world online is a place where the social contract has been stood on its head.

In our lives (in the real world), when we interact with others: visiting relative’s homes, running into our children’s teachers at the convenience store or meeting friends at the mall, our personal lives are subject to immediate validation. Your car sits in the parking lot, your children wear the clothes you pick out (or not,depending on age) and your life is a page in an increasingly public record.

In the virtual world, however, we are, in a very real sense, a story we tell those we meet. When we interact in the various locales such as Twitter or Facebook or on bloghops such as this one, we tell our story. The virtual world, at least the parts that I frequent, is very much a world of words and writing, stories and imagination, risk and rewards.

It’s a secret rule of life that the rate of meeting new people and making friends is inversely proportional to age. In the real world. there are only so many people who can fit into the: work places, schools, daycare, health clubs, churches, neighborhoods, supermarkets, doctor’s waiting rooms, therapists offices, barracks, bunkhouses, cells, wards and three-bedroom-colonials-on-a-quarter-acre-with-a-really-great-HOA. When limited opportunity butts heads with escalating demands on our personal time, is it any wonder that 80% of our real world friends are those we met back when we were still in school?

Then there is the virtual world. Available anywhere and anytime. And with more people (on the other side of the screen) than you could fly over in a plane on a four-hour flight.

And,(to try to establish the basis for my post….finally), just as it was in high school; when we arrive in the world-online, a social environment is waiting for us to negotiate, navigate and accommodate. There are people already here. They’ve been here long enough to establish their own little corners of the ‘sphere. Some of the people on the ‘net we meet because they on in our path. I mean, you have to get into line in order to get lunch, right? And, if you’re in line to get lunch, eventually you have to come out of the serving area and face a room (small or huge) of people eating lunch. Already seated. At their own tables. With their friends.

(lol  ok, so my own experiences with high school are not exactly 100% positive.) But I made it through those years. And now, a lifetime later, I find myself in a social environment that, with only a little imagination, looks a lot like high school. The difference is not that ‘I am older and mature and know better.’ That would be the easy and not-overly productive way out. The difference is that I choose to see the metaphor because it allows me to see myself in a slightly different perspective than might someone, (a roger, for example, who might say, ‘Dude! it’s the internet. You’re an adult. Stop with the make-believe, the trying to relive the past‘) who does not see the common points between past experiences and present reality. And the Wakefield Doctrine is about nothing, if it’s not about taking advantage of varying perspectives on the world in the service of becoming a better person.

Anyway… the value, (for me), of indulging in the conceptual metaphor of ‘the blogosphere as high school’ is that it allows me to make different choices and, by doing so, come to accept that ‘experience does not define the entire person’. My personal history, the social one inferred in this post, is not the summation of my potential. It is a description of choices I’ve made. The unfortunate thing about life is that, for some of us, when we look at the choices we’ve made (some consciously, others under duress, still others under the influence of others), we feel that they define us.

This time around, I’m finding it a little easier to be uncomfortable around others. I’m more willing to take risks, despite how foolish a part of me says I am. And, as a result, I have a bunch of friends that I might not otherwise had and, from that, I become a better person.

Thanks Kristi!

 

This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday bloghop post. Come on! Join in…. you’ll be glad ya did. Get on over to Finding Ninee and tell ’em the Doctrine sent ya.

 

 

* I remember writing my first post in large part because of what happened when I completed the process. So, I wrote and I edited and did all the things that we all do, Then came the moment… to hit ‘Publish’. I went through a number of clarklike changes and finally hit the button. I then reached down, turned off the computer, got up and went down to the garage, got in my car and drove away from my house.  Eventually I returned and turned on the computer and the rest has simple.

** Outsider (clarks), Predator (scotts) or Herd Member (roger)

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impromptu post* -the Wakefield Doctrine- *…done without being planned, organized, or rehearsed.

October 17, 2017 By

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

Of course, our Dickensian subtitle begs the question, ‘can a reprint truly be un-planned or un-organised or (especially) un-rehearsed?‘ I mean, serially, is it not the essence of rehearsal to present something that, while at one point was spontaneous, by definition is a repeat? I know that the clarks (and those rogers and scotts with significant secondary clarklike aspects) are thinking, ‘isn’t the bulk of my day in fact a ‘reprint’? if I’m remembering how I usually respond to people and situations in the past and am taking that habitual path today… am I giving up my opportunity for the sake of certainty. damn! best try not to do that!’

From 2012

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

The Wakefield Doctrine is a unique insight into the behavior of the people in our lives (and outside of our lives). The Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the fact that everyone lives  in what amounts to a ‘personal reality’ (aka a worldview).1 For the Reader willing to accept this premise, we offer three characteristic worldviews that account for:  you, me, the person who woke you up this morning, the Physician who will change your life in a single statement, the child you remember being on the perfect Halloween Evening, the woman who said she would love no other, the Teacher who you hated, the man who promised to return, the dreams of the future, the regrets of the past and your smile (to yourself) that you are still reading this thing.

The characteristic worldviews are (that of):

  1. the Outsider, you wake up each day knowing that the world is ‘out there’ and you are ‘here’, you are creative and funny and have an insatiable appetite to learn things, anything, for the joy of discovery and in the (secret) hope of learning the secret of how to be ‘a part of’ to not be the Outsider. This is the clark personality
  2. the Predator, you wake up each morning hungry…physically, spiritually, socially, sexually. A scott, (this is the personality type that naturally results from living in the worldview of the Predator), is always on the move, always alert, aggressive, fun to be with, mercurial, loud, un-shy and outlandish. It is said of the scottian individual, “I scream, therefore I am”
  3. the Member of the Herd, as a roger you are confident in the rightness of the world and constantly worried about sufficiently understanding the proper way to live, you are a social genius, you are a very encouraging listener and an inveterate gossip. You believe that Reality and the Universe is quantifiable and governed by Rules, your understanding of these Rules invests you with Power and Responsibility to everyone you encounter, rogers are responsible for Civilization and the Spanish Inquisition, the stability of  governance and the Salem Witch Trials

The theory (of the Wakefield Doctrine)  is that we are all born with the capability to live in one of these three worldviews and that at an early age (3-5), we all settle into what becomes our predominant worldview. Although this predominant worldview becomes our defining reality, we never lose the capacity to act as we would if we were in the ‘other two worldviews’. This is why many people, upon first trying out the Doctrine, write in and say, “Hey, I know my type, but there are times when I act like one of the other two! What the hell?” This is the example of what we call a secondary aspect, where a person ’employs’ a characteristic of the non-dominant worldviews to deal with a situation. It is usually a passing thing, nothing to be alarmed about.2
The Wakefield Doctrine is not only unique, it is easy to use! It does not ask questions, does not require the individual (you, the Reader, who else would we mean??!)  t0 complete a survey or describe their likes, dislikes and favorite colors.  There is no math to be performed, no charts or graphs (“…your personality type is somewhere on this scale that runs from 0 = Savior of Mankind to 10 = Geez, what a jerk!”)
The Wakefield Doctrine simply maintains that your personality is the natural result of your growing up, developing and living in one of the three worldviews.
The Wakefield Doctrine is not only unique and easy, it is fun! If you learn the characteristics of the three personality types, go out into your day today, you will see at least one clark and one scott (and by inference a bunch of rogers), and they will act just like we describe in these Pages. So go out, try it and come back and say “Hey Make it stop now!! Sure this is a valid insight, but my husband!!  he is such a roger! I can’t stop giggling when he tries to tell me how great a hobby that (genealogy, re-enacting, bicycling is). Make it stop!”

Thats it for today.

Thanks for behaving! We have a group of new people here today (yes, those odd locations in the feedjit, the whispering in the back of the classroom) not to worry! Most will leave as soon as the Tour bus gets here. Sure, why not? “Now,everone say hello to all them folks what came by from Bloppy Bloggers!

 

1)  nothing weird, really! We are not saying that reality is what you want it to be ( well, we actually do say that) and we are not proposing that the world at large is less real and concrete than your personal world,  (err..better hold that thought too) and we are so not saying that this is a personality theory that requires the user to have  a certain, special quality that combines intellectual confidence and a desire to imagine what if? (damn! 3 for 3…back up to the Post now, enough about you, this is about how the Wakefield Doctrine will make your today much more interesting).

2)  actually this business of secondary aspects holds the key to the Wakefield Doctrine being used as the best of self-improvement, self-development tools! But that’s for later, this is an introduction to the Doctrine, yo.

 

 

* here’s the vid that took me back (almost) to the reprint post above.

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Re-Print Monday -the Wakefield Doctrine-

August 14, 2017 By

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

 Why a Re-Print post?
Are you sure you want to know?
…really?
Fine.
You ever hear the expression, “As it was in the beginning so shall it be in the end.”? Fine sentiment. Impeccable provenance. A lead pipe cinch for ‘most likely to end up spelled out in colorful thread in a needlepoint’ or ‘ironically overlayed on a poster-sized photo of a mushroom cloud and/or a very cute kitten.’
The thing of it is, what does this saying imply about the time between ‘the beginning’ and ‘the end’.
Same as it ever was? (T. Heads).
The Doctrine reminds us that while it’s easy to believe that ‘nothing remains the same’, that is more intended for our surroundings than ourselves. And…and! since the key to the value of the Wakefield Doctrine lies in our coming to understand ‘how we relate ourselves to the world around us’, we ignore the difference (or lack thereof) in how we related ourselves to the world in the past at our extreme peril.
That being said, below is a three year old Post.
October 20, 2014

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

the part of the boat where the name 'Roann' is? that's the fo'c's'le (sleep and eat there…work everywhere else)

the part of the boat where the name ‘Roann’ is? that’s the fo’c’s’le (sleep and eat there…work everywhere else)

So here’s the thing, I need to write a Post before I get pulled into my work-world. (I’m also trying to learn to become a better writer… so let me think out loud here, ok?) You, the Reader, have a couple of Questions at this point:

  1. Why does he need to write a Post
  2. What does he mean by ‘(being)pulled into his ‘world-world’
  3. What does he mean by ‘work-world’ and
  4. I don’t think with parentheses… what they hell is going on here?

Fine. Here are the Answers:

1) I need to write a Post for two reasons: a) I’m trying to write ‘the Wakefield Doctrine book’ and, for reasons beyond the scope of this Post, I need to practice my ‘voice’ in writing (has something to do with how I’m trying to come across to the Reader of the book, more conversational than informational… interesting instead of pedantic. Not that I’m ever in danger of being pedantic. 2) I find that I only have a certain ‘amount of words’ to write in a given day and c) I’m always afraid that if I don’t write frequently enough, I’ll forget how to

2) I mean that there is a schedule to create, tasks and appointments that are part of my workday and, for me, I need to ‘get into character’, (Jules Winnfield in that wonderful movie, ‘Pulp Fiction’), in order to have any hope whatsoever of being effective today. The moment I start to plan my day, I’m halfway into that world

3) I believe I just told you.

4) So, I need to get something down ‘on paper’ in order to satisfy my need to do whatever-the-hell-it-is-that-I-think-I’m-doing-by-writing-this-blog, today. Not as cool as waking up carnal or waking up and running 5 miles or waking up and meditating on a bamboo mat or waking up in the fo’c’s’le of an old Eastern rig (you actually wake up because it become quieter…. the engines are slowed down because you’ve arrived at the spot where you will ‘set in’ , i.e.putting the net out, which involves physical work in one of the most … bracing of environments. It’s not just that you’re waking up outdoors! Hell, cowboys and campers do that! It’s not even that you’re in a hostile situation….soldiers and hookers experience that… it’s that the place you are, the ‘middle of the ocean’* is a place that you have no, natural business being. You are, through your technology, floating in an alien world, a ghost/demon in the quiet dark world of the fishes that swim below. Totally at the mercy of the elements, (wind and temperature, sky and water). Waking up and going up on deck ( the fo’c’s’le of an Eastern rig is in the bow, the foremost part of the boat and is below decks, so you need to climb a ladder to get outdoors). Working on deck means ignoring where you are and never for a moment forgetting where you are, very ….special way to wake up to a workweek.

Today’s Post title? Sometimes, all it takes is a wonderful song lyric to jumpstart a Post, ya know?

 

* for the most part, at least in the context of the Atlantic Ocean fisheries, you’re not really in the ‘middle of the ocean’… you’re on the left edge, the Continental shelf, to be somewhat technical…. the depth that you fish in is relatively shallow, maybe, 600 feet versus 6,000 (the shelf drops off very sharply…well, yeah just like a shelf…google it)

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

August 1, 2017 By

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?“)

 

** super-brief Doctrine for New Readers: unlike most of the other personality theories and schema, the Doctrine does not rely on quizzes and surveys, questions about favorite colours or food, likes and dislikes, in order to establish which category a person falls into. This is because, from our viewpoint, our personality ‘types’ are simply the characteristically distinct style of dealing with life, given the world we are experiencing. Ex: I grew up in the reality of the ‘the Outsider’ and I learned and developed the style of interacting that would best advantage me in that context. My tendency to mumble, have poor posture, make creatively eccentric fashion choices, be funny (provided you’re close enough to hear me) and exhibit a sporadic yet wildly original creativity is because that is what is successful when contending with the world as I experience it. For scotts and for rogers, the same applies. Start out as a little baby one in the world of the Predator and I betcha you develop a predilection for quick reflexes, act-before-being-acted-up real fast. It’s about what strategies are appropriate to the character of the world you grow up in, you know, what kind of likes and dislikes, favorite colours or food that increase the odds that you survive and thrive today.

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Wednexday -the Wakefield Doctrine- (‘…of old sayings and songs from the mid-seventies’)

July 19, 2017 By

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

factorsbehin

Funny, but I’ll still get to feeling like writing a post whenever a favorite song happens to coincide with my accomplishing something and, I’m relaxing with that odd, though undeniably right, feeling that I don’t have to run and/or hide. (see bottom of Post)

It’s been said that ‘Anyone who deliberately reads the Wakefield Doctrine blog more than three times, (or twice, provided the second time is by themselves) is a clark. Or they’re a roger or a scott with a significant secondary clarklike aspect’.

Why is that true? Because scotts and rogers as not in search of an alternative. There’s another old saying, ’round this Doctrine, goes, “If you have a large group of people in, like an auditorium or something, and need to identify the clarks real quick, just get on the intercom and say, “Anyone who would like to be someone else, please raise your hand.”  Those readers who just smiled: clarks. Those readers who smile and wonder, ‘Why on earth does he think that?’ scotts and rogers.

The reason? clarks are those people who grew up (and developed social skills, coping mechanism and life strategies to contend with) (in) a world in which they are Outsiders. As a result, they are driven to learn what they think they missed growing up, all while trying to avoid being identified as Outsiders. Not an easy task. Like fricken prehistoric lemurs, we stay low, keep to the underbrush and avoid the T Rex and Sabre Tooth tigers, all while trying to survive on a diet deemed insufficient for the surrounding massively qualified-to-thrive population. We dash out to the watering holes when the predators are sleeping off a big kill and return to our hiding to dream about a day when we don’t have to look over our slightly rounded shoulders. And yet, despite being the totally least-qualified among the quick killer predators or the over-sized grazers of vegetation, we persist. At times it’s almost as if we believe we’re at least as qualified to live as our cold-blooded reptilian ‘friends’. And …and! we display a tenacity and persistence that has no correlates or supporting evidence whatsoever, at least to any casual observer. But we survive. By blending in…sorta.

The ‘sorta’ refers to the most jarring of contradictions that identifies clarks, best expressed in the saying, ‘clarks abhor being the center of attention, but will not tolerate being ignored’. (yeah, I know! what’s an Outsider to do?)

While clarks are driven to learn what everyone else, (in the surrounding world of ‘real’ people), apparently has known all along, we also have a deep abiding need to create. This, of course, is constantly negating our efforts to don protective coloration. Sure, we can be quiet and not talk a lot, but then we insist on dyeing something blue. We can find a spot in the crowd, (at work, at the PTA meeting or the classroom) that’s not in front, nor totally in back, only to be unable to resist the fun quip/aside or smart-ass observation which invariably causes heads to turn.

Time this morning is running out, here at Doctrine Central. Before I cue up the music, let me say this: when you’re out there today, in the world? Look around and try to see the clarks. Wait until you’re in the company of a number of people, otherwise they’re going to spot you looking and will be in the underbrush before you can say, “Hey wait! I won’t do anything mean, the Wakefield Doctrine said I had to find you and try to get you to not hide.”  Won’t work, but you’ll stop and say, ‘holy smoke! they are there!’

One last old saying: ‘The Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them.” All of the effects and benefits, insights and self-improvements you experience from the use of the alternative perspective that this personality theory avails us of, is nothing that can change or alter or modify the other person. It will enhance your relationships, but it will not change anyone other than you.

music (warning! very hum-able song)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWnBD6n9j74

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