the Wakefield Doctrine

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

I am accepting on faith and because I received the ‘connect the TToT linky thing’ in my email from Lizzi, that today is, in fact, Saturday. Which means, the Ten Things of Thankful, of which I am one of 10 hosts.

If you’re joining us for the first time: our founderess, Lizzi, provides a clear, simple and easy to understand explanation of her vision for this bloghop, it’s down at the bottom of this here page here (below the TToT icon and above the photos of the linked-in Posts). You can scroll right to that section and learn what this bloghop is all about or,  …or!  you can read your way there.  (Just between you and me, some Readers are better off getting a good, reassuringly presented description of what you will find here…  as for the rest of you,  well you came to the blogosphere to get away from the everyday routine of the real world, non? well, I’m glad you could make it.)

The simple direction to participants is: tell us about some of things from the previous week that you are grateful for, ten things, if you would be so kind. If you’re the kind of Reader I really look for, right now you’re saying, “Look out!! clark… last week had one of the most powerful holidays of your culture milieu  and ,,,it is a celebration of gratitude!!!  Look out!!! If you try to be grateful for that, you’ll be pulled under like a riptide of thankfulness!!”

Since we certainly don’t want that to happen, lets… ( continue our little metaphor and swim parallel to the shore for a while, gratitude-istically speaking), and use the Wakefield Doctrine as a context for the first part of this week’s list, after all, as must be abundantly clear to any Reader here at this blog, ‘the Doctrine’ as it’s known to regular Readers, forms the backdrop, the raison d’être  for everything I do online so it makes sense that I at least start this week’s list with times grounded in my efforts to write a blog.

…this last week? am I grateful for the Wakefield Doctrine because:

1. I have friends who I’ve met because I tend to go places (to try to promote the Doctrine) that I would not have likely gone were it otherwise. Joining an writers group on ‘the Facebook’ exhibit A, no frickin way I would have had the nerve to not only be a member (ha ha…secret joke) but to actively participate in the bloopy bloggers long to enough to meet some really exceptional people, i.e.  Cyndi and Christine and Dyanne and Jak,  Michelle and zoe and Lizzi to name a few. I just would not have been able to pull it off, if I did not have… what we used to call ‘a premise’ to allow me to overcome my fear
2. of course, knowing Lizzi lead to being asked (!! yeah, I know!) to participate in the TToT as a co-host  like I would have stepped up and asked to be included… yeah, right  ‘def Grat’ there!
3.  it allows me to recognize when a premise is not working and have the confidence in myself to simply stop…not get tangled up in a major re-write, just move on… a very self-consciousness-engendering event, but I am totally grateful that I can!

I have standards for playing with the rules of this hop and I have too much respect for my co-hostinae for me to behave in too frivolous a manner . Because, while I participate on a voluntary basis and it reads like I’m having fun with it (which I hope it does and I do), participating in this exercise is totally a serious thing for me. Not to get all heavy*, but for me personally, finding within 10 things that I feel I am able to claim to feel grateful for, is not easy. Not because I’m not grateful for them (well, maybe a little of that), but because, for me, expressing something as personal as my feelings in a public forum is a challenge. Now, in no way is this blog meant to be all touchy feely  get-in-touch-with-your-inner-blogger way, but some thing are easier for some people that other things.
(to continue…)

4) I am grateful for a chance to have a conversation, nearly in the real world, with zoe last evening. We did a video chat  with google hangout and we talked for quite a bit and I came away thinking… damn! some people are as cool in person as they are in the blogosphere

5) I am grateful for my work (the following is kind of a lie), even though this week had a difficult client interaction event, which is all part of the job, but it was highly stressful because it involved telling the client that things were no going down the optimal path and that is never a fun thing to do, but I did and, by doing so, provided the service I was hired to provide,  so I am grateful that I was in a position to do that

6) I am grateful I don’t work outdoors for a living anymore. My wife Phyllis bought one of those portable, canvas-over-a-framework garages (all assembly required!) for her new car, and we started the  process last weekend,   windchill about 15 degrees. We got about 1/4 of the thing assembled which was decent,  but needed to take breaks frequently because of numb hands. I was able to remind myself that in another circumstance I would be grateful for being able to work in conditions that caused my hands to lose all sensation.

7) hey!  twofer!!… I was grateful for the fact that I don’t work outdoors but I also am totally grateful that somehow I’ve managed to cultivate and maintain a certain perspective, one that allows me to compare what I might be hating (at a given moment) with the fact of the possibility that things could be otherwise…as in,  I would be wishing for the chance to work in the freezing temperature with hands that go numb in about 15 minutes… it’s a perspective thing… I’m really grateful for that

8) oh!  almost forgot… I got my trademark certificate (for the phrase/words ‘Wakefield Doctrine’)  and, while some of my friends collect cars and others are into boats and golf and fishing and such, and despite feeling a bit silly on occasion at the idea of spending the time and the money to get this thing (nicely framed on my wall) I am glad that I did…(  Me:  “for $500  what is a trademark certificate for the Wakefield Doctrine?” Alex Trebek: “Please! Contestants! Provide your List Items in the form of an expression of gratitude”)

9) While I cannot say that I am grateful to Pilgrims or any Settlers, I can say that I am grateful for a comfortable Thursday this week.

10) so, new Reader? (who was willing to read  your way down here?) I am grateful for your company (…nothing weird, we all do this thing when we write…imagining a person right here who we tell ‘the story’ to, our description of our reality providing a total stranger with the gift of a view of a world… we do all do that,  don’t we?)

* an old term used by young people a long time ago…’heavy’  sort of a serious appellation for something possessing remarkable attributes

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

Break Time!!  Yeah, we know what you’re thinking,* “hey  enough of the heavy introspection, already!  we came here for a break from our daily routines, ya know? The Wakefield Doctrine advertises itself as being a personality theory that’s unique, useful and fun.  Lets see some of that fun!”

Well, we all know that if it’s fun you’re after (and you’re not concerned with the price), there’s only one worldview to go to… the scottian worldview. scotts!!!  (‘Say it baritone and you can hear the police sirens wailing, say it contralto and you’ll surely be praying‘).

We all have a scottian friend. There’s currently a TV commercial for Las Vegas and is premised on that guy, the one we all knew growing up who always had to push it. To go a bit faster, to take a bit more of a risk than is absolutely necessary. juvenile detention facilities structure their business models on the young scottian males’ natural proclivity for anticipating consequences.

And….and! lets not forget that the Wakefield Doctrine is gender neutral! ( ya gotta admit, in most cultures, the male is permitted a greater latitude in (their) choices of expression of drives and instincts and such, the scottian personality type is that of the predator and so they pretty high on the aggressiveness and impulsivity of action. if you are female, in most cultures, they will frown upon you going around arm wrestling, punching your subordinates on the shoulder and saying ‘fuck!’ a lot. fortunately for you (the scottian female) there are ….alternative forms of expression).

if you’re a clark you have always had a scottian friend, if you’re a roger you have never been able to avoid having a scottian friend and if you are a scott you’ve known of other scotts in your life.  you know them because as a scott:

• they must establish ‘ranking’ in any and every social environment… you will spot the scott because they will alway first ‘work the room’, going from person to person, small group to small group and push everyone on the shoulder (literally and/or figuratively), by doing this they will establish their place in rank
• they will command attention (or better, for the sake of the rogers) they will simply assume dominance
• in conversational style:  a clark will listen to you talk, a roger will let you talk…a scott will make you talk
• females will be identified as ‘tomboys’ early in life (‘from ages 5 to breasts’); with puberty, scottian females come into their own… (short form: most cultures do not permit the female members expressing aggressiveness physically)
• you will have a clarklike friend, who you will consider a friend because they  do not act like prey nor do they act like as another scott
• they will be total pushovers for a person who appreciates their mind ( in males it is best to admire their creativity… in females anything not involving their bodies will work  lol)
• in social conflicts, as in dog training, to feel fear is to admit defeat
• they are mercurial in temperament and loyal to friends and ferocious as adversaries

But they’re fun! It is easy to say, ‘hey of course we like scotts! they’re active and like to do things and are entertaining. whats not to like?’  True. But, this being the Wakefield Doctrine, we owe to ourselves to look a little deeper.

scotts are impulsive …and this appeals to us, albeit on an unconscious level, they live in the here and now!  (you remember the tale of the fiddle playing grasshopper?? tell me that, before you got to the ‘oh-so-correct-and-this-is-how-you-should-live-your-live sledge hammer ending…. tell me that you didn’t think of the grasshopper as the ‘good guy’! to varying degrees, we all would like to believe that, all we need do is throw off the cares and responsibility and life could be so much more….  and that’s true.

scotts are certain…  and this is why they are ‘natural leaders’… (the Doctrine saying is) ‘scotts are frequently wrong, never uncertain’.  people all too often equate certainty with wisdom

scotts represent what any of us would demonstrate as a ‘personality type’ if we found ourselves in the reality of the predator at a very early age and had to develop coping skills and strategies

scotts are attractive and aggravating, they are natural showmen/show-women, they see the audience as would a hungry lion a pack of gazelles  …

in the history of Man:  scotts are the conquerors, the explorers,  they are Alexander the Great (but not Julius Caesar) they are Genghis Khan (but not Charlemagne)  they are George Patton (but not Dwight Eisenhower)  scotts are cops but not firefighters….scotts are surgeons but not physicians … scotts are prima ballerinas but not Rockettes  …scotts are leaders but not Rulers

If you have made it this far…this is the link to the page on scotts

Hey want to see a scott in action?  watch this here video…everything you need to know about how to recognize a scott (there’s Robert DeNiro as the clark and some other guy as the roger).

* well duh!  this is the Wakefield Doctrine!