the Wakefield Doctrine

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

We claim the Wakefield Doctrine is a ‘perfect’ system for self-improvement and understanding the behavior of the people in our lives for 2  very simple reasons:

1. the Wakefield Doctrine is predicated on the idea that we all live in one of three characteristic worldviews (aka personal realities)
2. for something to have significance, it must exist within your worldview or it simply will not register
3. (because of this) anything we say here, in this blog or from the perspective of the Wakefield Doctrine will simply be noise if the first two conditions do not apply.

There you go.

So rather than waste a lot of time trying to sell you on why you should believe any of this, which, if you don’t know by this point why it is (a waste of time) then just keep reading…a little more, thats it!  …you are getting confused…disinterested…bored//////

OK  we’ve gotten rid of the distractions. Lets give you something useful on this Monday morning.

Below is a Comment/Reply from yesterday’s Post. The Post itself is not critical to getting something from the exchange, being a clark is. The thing we say about the Wakefield Doctrine being a perfect system for helping us understand ourselves and the people in our lives? Totally serious about that. But, while my first instinct is to put the example (of the Comment) up here in your face, lets leave it down at the bottom of the Post. It’s kinda inflammatory, insightful, heart-felt and totally useful to anyone capable of understanding it. …and that’s precisely why it’s stuck down there at the bottom of the page.

There have been two ‘drives’ pushing me as I write these Posts over the last few years: a) the need to share the benefits of the Wakefield Doctrine with as many people as possible  and 2) the fear that I lack the rhetorical skills necessary to present  the principles of the Wakefield Doctrine effectively.
I have, of late, come around to a different view.  Well, better make that one (of the two). I still want to have the Wakefield Doctrine become a household term, but will settle for total strangers being overheard in an airport terminal saying, ‘jeez what a roger‘  or  ‘stop being such a clark, you don’t need to and you have the choice’

The second drive: to explain the Wakefield Doctrine in terms that, as Malcolm once said, ‘everyone can easily understand’. For the most part, I’ve written these Posts simply because it’s been fun. At other times (especially in the first couple of years) I’ve found trying to write Posts from the scottian perspective or the rogerian frame of reference. And while these efforts increased my own understanding of the Doctrine, there has been little change in the demographic of the readership. Eventually I gave up trying to: sell to the readers/convince people to come and read the Doctrine/pine for the ‘other two worldviews’ in my Reader Cross section.

Only when I stopped trying did I see the changes, the improvements. That and the good fortune to end up ‘in the same room’ with a number of very talented clarks… (and an exceptional roger) (and….and! a couple of scotts)

So how do we get away with saying this is a perfect system?  Very simply. If the perspective that is being offered (insights, answers, suggestions for change) is something that you, the Reader, can identify with it…then it is valuable. If you can’t identify with what is being said, then  it’s harmless information or, at worse, nonsense. You won’t be exposed to bad advice here at the Wakefield Doctrine simply because we are not requiring anyone to do as we say…. the Wakefield Doctrine is  one (more) perspective on life. A very cool and amusing and scary-sometimes-in-it’s-accuracy-in-prediction, but still…just another of a thousand ways to look at the behavior of the people in our lives.

Seeing how the only people who have not already scrolled down to my little Comment reprint are the rogers who for god knows what reason are still hanging around, here it is:

Our friend Kristi  wrote a Comment last night. She was referring to the Posts that were written for the TToT, which, if you are new here is a bloghop of no small distinction. To learn more and to read the Post that she is referencing (sort of ) follow this link or this link. I will reprint her Comment (and) my Reply here:

(Kristi) I know that you’re going to get this as a Clark but part of me is so itchy about TToT. I adore it love it adore it but also sometimes feel like a braggy asshole about what I’m thankful for like “YAY look at me!” Which (as you know) is always tempting but also SO FUCKING UNcomfortable at times. Like my post today? I didn’t like that person. And it was me. And I wonder should I change it or just be thankful for what I’m thankful for! UGH!! 

(clark)…I know what you mean, (fortunately) there are some phrases that reference this state (unfortunately, as you might infer from the previous) this is a descriptive understanding, not an informative/explantive understanding.

one phrase I use (to describe what I think you are referring to) is that after I ‘exert myself among other people (non-clarks especially) ‘my head swells up and my face falls’… but there is something that happens, a kind of backlash that is either explicit, ‘hey, you’re getting pretty big for your britches, aren’t you?’ or more insidiously ‘mental nausea’ which is just feeling bad as an aftermath from going out of your comfort zone .

Frankly I’m not sure where I come down on what the hell this is coming from…it’s really unpleasant and lol all I want is time to pass…so it will fade away…nothing direct that implies I need to do something …just it needs to ‘be another time‘

that’s a clue, I think… one possibility is that it is simply our own (conscious or un-conscious/deliberate or non-deliberate) efforts to stay clarks… a way we have of keeping us in our place. It really sucks and is nearly the worst we, as clarks can feel… the worse is when we really, really get exuberant and then get a full ‘hey you know how you think you’re finally learning? how you’re pretty sure that you have overcome being such a creep? well, you haven’t…they’re laughing, just not when you’re around’

thats the worst. (but there is a tiny, fucked up, pretty damn clarklike bright side to this… we (clarks) all know what this is like…so, for me, the next time I find myself there… the voice that tells me why I deserve it won’t be so totally airtight-correct)… not much help…doesn’t get me out of that place…but it is a new thing and it changes what that experience is about.

So let us know what you think…  no, this is the damn Doctrine!  we already know what you think!  why doncha go ahead and tell us what we think!  make it interesting… lol

ya knw?

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

I have, from time to time over the course of the years here, set out to ‘write to’ each of the three personality types. By ‘write to’ I mean (and meant): to pick the words, shape the sentences, carve the paragraphs, sneak in the clauses that would resonate with a Reader of a specific personality type. I have set out (on these occasions) to publish a Wakefield Doctrine blog Post that would be irresistible to a roger, totally exciting to a scott and interesting to a clark. Not an unreasonable  goal, what with my understanding of the Doctrine, to ‘get inside the head’ of a Reader. Ya know?

I have not been successful.  …at least with Readers from of 2 out of 3 worldviews. So the question: is this a worthwhile ambition for one who is writing a blog that is all about a personality theory that maintains it is possible to ‘see the world as the other person experiences it’? Or is there a secret flaw to this very ambition, something about it that I am not seeing, something inherent to the premise or is it simply a function of (or lack thereof) my current skill level at this whole writing thing?

Before we continue this, knowing that there might be a roger or a scott out there reading, or, more of a legitimate concern, a new(er) Reader, let me interrupt myself and give everyone a quick overview of our little personality theory. With the assistance of our favorite glyph, Mr. Bullet Point!  (Mr. Bullet Point, aided by the sexy and faithful, Miss Parenthesis, is totally the foundation in my efforts to communicate the principles and applications of this here Doctrine here), the Wakefield Doctrine is:

• a perspective on people and what is (correctly or otherwise) referred to as their personality type
• a way to understand the behavior of the people in our lives, whether immediate family or distant cousins, the girl at the next cubicle or your Manager in the office with all the ‘windows’ that look over the work area
• based on the idea that we all live our lives in what can be described as personal realities… that part of the world between our minds and the other person’s mind
• certain that there are, among the personal realities (aka ‘worldviews’) of all of us, three characteristic worldviews, the world of the Outsider, the reality of the Predator and the life of the Herd
• predicated on the notion that we all find ourselves in one of these three worldviews and what others call ‘personality types’ is simply a reflection of the world that we are experiencing
• certain that while we all live our lives in one of these three worldviews (our predominant), we always retain access to the ‘other two’
• fun… when you see the clarks and the scotts and the rogers in your world and they start acting like we describe here… a lot like we describe here, you will scream and curse us or laugh and say, “damn! wait ’til I tell everyone at the Doctrine what I saw that scott do today”!
• useful, it will help you better understand yourself

So, back to our question, ‘should I be trying to write, based on my understanding of the Wakefield Doctrine, Posts that will appeal to the rogers and scotts and clarks, in order to attract new Readers?

In the interest of encouraging discussion, allow me to say: I enjoy what I’ve been doing and do not feel that my efforts are of less value if I do not attract ‘the other two’.  While it is obvious to everyone that my goal is to present the Wakefield Doctrine to as wide an audience as possible, my satisfaction with the results to date are founded (and grounded) in the quality and nature of the responses of Readers to date, and not the quantity. I really enjoy what I am doing, especially  the people who are making this blog way, way more than it was when I started. I feel very lucky to have (fill in one of 53 names right here!) hang out here and such.

So to get this Discussion started:

• hey! get some Guest Post writers!!  all three too
• hey where are the videos!!
• well, since you asked you would do well to emphasize a view that is more than…totally clarklike
• how about the Video Brunch and the Saturday Night Drives or that ‘radio’ thing you started to do…. huh? what about them
• ….jump in whenever you feel like  lol

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

Big weekend now behind, normal (with a slight variation with semi-holiday today) work week stretched out before us. Short Post this Morning. Time to get to work, back to school, the weekly routine.

Hey! here’s an idea! A Contest!! Vote for the Best Comment from the Weekend!

Weekend  Quote #1  (from Lizzi)

Weekend Quote #2  (from Joy)

Weekend Quote #3  (from Kristi)

Weekend Quote #4 (from zoe)

Ok  the Week Ahead:

• work and school and homemaking, remember the Rule: “...everyone does everything at one time or another” and that tells us what?  Correct Cyndi! It tells us that it is not about whether getting good grades is a rogerian quality or if being on time for work is a scott thing or cleaning the house and getting to the gym after the kids are on the bus is a clark thing. the Wakefield Doctrine is about understanding how a thing (or an activity or anything else) manifests in the world of the individual we are trying to understand
• speaking of trying to Understand:  you know why you should read, learn and ask questions about the Wakefield Doctrine?  so you can use the Wakefield Doctrine in your life! and the reason you should want to do this is so that you never again need to find yourself saying,  “Now why would she say a thing like that?? I really thought I knew him better than that?“
• speaking of Molly… I will try to keep her (good) advice from a year ago in my mind when I do another Wakefield Doctrine 30 Minute Radio Hour  later this week. (Her advice was, don’t feel you need to tell the Listeners everything, if they are interested, they are intelligent enough to find the answer in the blog or ask the questions.)
• …lets end today’s post with this:  ‘the Wakefield Doctrine is for you, not them’. So, in the course of the coming week, if you find yourself in conflict with what another person has said or done, observe their behavior and try to see the world as that person is experiencing it… I guarantee that you will see that they are acting as any person would react to a world in which they are: the Outsider (not a part of, not included, no member benefits) or the Predator (if you want to survive in their world you act first and reflect later, because life is meant to be lived, not planned and certainly not by following Rules  or maybe  the Herd Member (living and interacting in a sea of emotion, you feel the world and the people in it, there are Rules and they as so the greater Good…hell, they are the only Good.
• …after considering all of the previous step… remember that you are predominately: a clark (so stop ‘eating your future’ and get out in the world of people and take some chances) or a scott (know that you can reflect on the not-immediate-things and take the time to hear the person, even if they seem to be whispering) or a roger (the people who seem to be not-with-the-program? your biggest secret asset, stop and see if you can connect with them, otherwise all you have are other rogers (like they care about you) and scotts…