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Robert Fuller's bestseller "Somebodies and Nobodies diagnosed and named the malady of rankism — "what somebodies may do to nobodies." In this sequel, he further explores the social and psychological costs of this problem and counters it with the vision of a "dignitarian" society. Drawing on his experiences as a scientist, college president, and public diplomat, Fuller identifies rankism as the chief obstacle to achieving the American vision of liberty and justice for all — and he spells out the steps required to eradicate it. Beginning with a call to action, the author exposes what is at stake by demonstrating rankism's poisonous presence in politics, business, and even personal relationships. By way of solutions, he offers alternative dignitarian models for several fundamental parts of society, including education, healthcare, politics, and religion. "All Rise illuminates the subtle, often dysfunctional workings of power in all our interactions, and shows why change is not only desirable but vital.
WHY DO YOU SMILE? CHANGE BUT THE NAME, AND IT IS OF YOURSELF THAT THE TALE IS TOLD. -HORACE, ROMAN POET AND SATIRIST
A Once and Future Nobody
None of us likes to be taken for a nobody. In order to protect our dignity, we cultivate the skill of presenting ourselves as a somebody. But despite our best efforts, it may come to pass that we wake up one morning and find ourselves in Nobodyland.
At midlife that happened to me, and for quite some time I couldn't seem to get out. Then one morning I heard new words to an old slogan buzzing in my head: "Nobodies of the world, unite! We have nothing to lose but our shame."
A slogan like that calls for a manifesto. In a few frenzied months I wrote a first draft, which I called The Nobody Book. It argued that nobodies are not defenseless against the put-downs of somebodies and showed what they can do in response to such attacks.
I made a half-dozen copies and foisted them on my friends. The first thing I heard from them was, "Change the title! No one would want to read something called The Fat Book and no one will want to read The Nobody Book either." But everyone insisted on telling me about the times they'd been "nobodied." I started collectingtheir stories and recalled a few of my own.
I remembered Arlene in second grade, exiled to the hall as punishment for having dirty fingernails. I winced at the memory of Burt, who had bullied me and my friends at summer camp. I recalled with chagrin how my playmates and I had tormented a kid with Down syndrome, and how Professor Mordeau had made fun of my faulty French accent. Memories of the Sunday school teacher who threatened us with eternal damnation returned.
I began to see stories of humiliation and indignity in the news as well as close at hand: abuse scandals in churches and prisons, corporations defaulting on employee pensions, hypercompetitive parents berating child athletes, the staff at my parents' retirement home patronizing residents.
The Abuse of Rank
One day all these behaviors came into a single focus: they could all be seen as abuses of rank-more precisely, the power attached to rank. I recognized myself as a once and future nobody, and wondered if that wasn't everyone's fate. As the anecdotes multiplied, I incorporated them into the manuscript. After numerous reorganizations of the material, I printed a dozen copies, passed them around and awaited the verdict. People still hedged their bets, but they all wanted me to hear about their own attempts to get out of Nobodyland.
The reframing and rewriting continued. A third draft. The analysis was extended and gained in clarity. A fourth. After a few years, I submitted a version to several publishers. They responded with boilerplate rejections. One editor opined that the material was compelling and might even have broad appeal, but saw an insurmountable problem: "Nobodies don't buy books!"
A friend suggested creating a Web site where I could at least give the book away. So I hired a college math major to design one. Her creation gave oxygen to the project. We dubbed the site breakingranks.net, and it's still going strong on the Web.
Overnight, it got thousands of hits. On an online forum, strangers shared their stories of abuse and discrimination. Two thousand visitors to the site downloaded the free manuscript. One of them put a copy into the hands of a small publisher, and just when I'd about given up hope of ever seeing it appear between two covers I received an e-mail inquiring about rights to it. A meeting was arranged, a contract signed, and in the spring of 2003 New Society Publishers in British Columbia brought out a hardcover edition of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank.
Getting the word out that spring was made more difficult by the Iraq war, the start of which coincided to the day with the book's publication. Round-the-clock coverage of the conflict lasted about a month, but during the blackout I got a break: Oprah's magazine featured the book in an article titled "R-E-S-P-E-C-T," and suddenly my phone started ringing. Twelve cities and a hundred interviews later, the book had found its audience. For a few heady days, it even managed to edge out the latest Harry Potter book at Amazon.com. It seems that nobodies do buy books after all!
Recognizing Rankism
Nobodyland isn't really such a bad place, so long as you aren't trying to get out. You can do a lot of good work there, and since you're out of sight, you are free to make mistakes, explore new ideas, and develop them until you're ready to try them in public. When, at long last, I did get the chance to do so, I got an earful in response.
Some people scolded me for wasting their time: "Everything in your book is in the Bible. It shouldn't take 150 pages to get to the golden rule." A couple of wary souls feared this was another cult. And a handful protested, "Not another 'ism'!" and dismissed the idea of rankism as "just more political correctness," "radical egalitarianism," or "Fabian drivel."
But most respondents-even the self-confessed cynics-welcomed the naming and spotlighting of rank-based abuse and expressed the hope that by targeting rankism we could consolidate our gains over the now-familiar isms-racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, and so on-and eventually extend the sway of democratic principles so as to secure dignity for everybody. Here are a few remarks posted on the Web site or sent as e-mail:
Rankism is the ism that, once eradicated, would pretty much eliminate the rest of them.
Rankism is so ingrained, so common, that it's hard to even notice it.
Rankism gives a name to something we've all experienced but probably not given much thought to. Once you have a name for it, you see it everywhere.
It's comforting to know that a lot of the insults I've put up with in my life are being experienced by people everywhere. I for one am sick of being nobodied.
Recognizing rankism makes you more conscious of your dignity.
I have begun using the term rankism, explained it to my friends, and now they are using it, too.
In the three years following the publication of Somebodies and Nobodies I learned that there is indeed an iceberg of indignation out there of which we're seeing only the tip. Below the waterline lies the bottled-up resentments of millions who are nobodied every day. I heard from kids, parents, teachers, nurses, physicians, managers, professionals, and workers of every stripe. The impotent rage they must contain-whether at home, in school, or on the job-exacts a toll on their health and happiness and hence on their creativity and productivity. Occasionally their repressed indignation erupts in what others see as a senseless act of violence. But violence is rarely, if ever, senseless. If it seems so, we've simply failed to understand it. Like the original n-word, nobody is an epithet that packs a powerful punch. That is why we're so desperate to pass as somebodies and shield ourselves from rankism's punishing sting.
Another thing I've learned is that once people have a diagnosis for what ails them, they want a cure for it. Many asked me for more concrete strategies for fighting rankism. They also wanted a clearer picture of what a dignitarian society-a society in which rank-holders are held accountable, rankism is disallowed, and dignity is broadly protected-would look like and tools that could be used for building one. The purpose of this book is to address those requests.
For those of you who haven't read Somebodies and Nobodies, here's a little background.
Power Matters
Like most people who experienced the social movements of the sixties, my attention at the time was drawn to personal attributes such as color, gender, disability, or age, each of which was associated with its own form of prejudice. But as a college president in the early seventies, I found myself dealing with the women's, black, and student movements all at once and from a position of authority at the vortex of the storms they were generating on campus. This gave me a vantage point from which I began to sense that something more than trait-sanctioned discrimination was going on, something deeper and more encompassing. What struck me was that, despite changes in the cast of characters and differences in rhetoric, each of these movements could be seen as a group of weaker and more vulnerable "nobodies" petitioning for an end to oppression and indignity at the hands of entrenched, more powerful "somebodies."
From this point of view, it becomes obvious that characteristics such as religion, color, gender, and age are merely excuses for discrimination, never its cause. Indeed, such features signify weakness only when there is a social consensus in place that handicaps those bearing them. Anti-Semitism, Jim Crow segregation, patriarchy, and homophobia are all complex social agreements that have functioned to disempower whole categories of people and keep them susceptible to abuse and exploitation.
The personal traits that define the various identity groups are pretexts around which social stratifications are built and maintained. But at the deepest level, these arrangements foster and support injustice based on something less conspicuous but no less profound in its consequences: rank in the social hierarchy. All the various, seemingly disparate forms of discrimination actually have one common root: the presumption and assertion of rank to the detriment of others.
Providing further evidence for this shift in perspective was my realization that just as some whites bully other whites, so also do some blacks exploit other blacks and some women demean other women. Clearly, such intraracial and intragender abuses can't easily be accounted for within the usual trait-centered analyses. One approach is to account for black-on-black prejudice-sometimes called colorism-in terms of the "internalization of white oppression." But this explains one malady (black racism) in terms of another (white racism) and brings us no closer to a remedy for either. If the goal is to end racism of all kinds, it's more fruitful to see both inter- and intraracial discrimination as based on differences in power-that is, on who holds the higher position in a particular setting and therefore commands an advantage that forces victims to submit to their authority.
Viewing things in terms of power instead of color, gender, and so on is not intended to divorce the dynamics of racial or other forms of prejudice from the specific justifications that particular groups of somebodies use to buttress their claims to supremacy. But it does direct our attention to the real source of ongoing domination-a power advantage-and suggests that we'll end social subordination of every kind only as we disallow abuse stemming from simply having high enough rank to get away with it.
As the implications of all this sank in I realized that, as with the familiar liberation causes, abuse of the power associated with rank could not be effectively addressed so long as there was no name for it. Absent one, nobodies were in a position similar to that of women before the term sexism was coined. Writing in 1963, Betty Friedan characterized the plight of women as "the problem that has no name." By 1968, the problem had acquired one: sexism. That simple word intensified consciousness-raising and debate and provided a rallying cry for a movement to oppose power abuse linked to gender.
A similar dynamic has played out with other identity groups seeking redress of their grievances. Those discriminated against on the basis of their race unified against racism. The elderly targeted ageism. By analogy, I adopted the term rankism to describe abuses of power associated with rank.
The coinage rankism is related to the colloquialisms pulling rank and ranking on someone, both of which bear witness to the signal importance of rank in human interactions. It is also worth noting that as an adjective, rank means foul, fetid, or smelly, and the verb to rankle means to cause resentment or bitterness. Although there is no etymological relationship between these usages and the word rank in the sense of position in a hierarchy, it's fitting that the word rankism picks up by association the malodor of its sound-alikes.
Rank can refer to either rank in society generally (social rank) or rank in a more narrowly defined context (such as within an institution or family). Thus, rankism occurs not just between and within social identity groups but in schools, businesses, health care organizations, religious institutions, the military, and government bureaucracies as well. Indeed, since most organizations are hierarchical and hierarchies are built around gradations of power, it comes as no surprise that they are breeding grounds for rank-based abuse.
Examples from everyday life include a boss harassing an employee, a doctor demeaning a nurse, a professor exploiting a graduate student, and students bullying each other. On a societal scale are headline-making stories of political and corporate corruption, sexual abuse by members of the clergy, and the maltreatment of elders in nursing homes.
Photos of the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners by their guards gave the entire world a look at rankism's arrogant face. Hurricane Katrina made visible its most common victims. The wealthy and connected, even those of moderate means, got out of New Orleans ahead of time. The poor, the sick, prisoners, the old, and those lacking transportation were trapped by nature's fury and then left to cope on their own during days of inaction by government officials and agencies. The inadequacies of the initial government response have since been compounded by another, deeply ingrained form of rankism-the regionalism that, since the Civil War, has manifested as the North holding itself superior to the South.
In addition to its universality, rankism differs from the familiar trait-based abuses because rank is not fixed the way race and gender generally are, but rather changes depending on the context. Someone can hold high rank in one setting (for example, at home) and simultaneously be low on the totem pole in another (at work). Likewise, we can feel powerful at one time and powerless at another, as when we move from childhood to adulthood and then from our "prime" into old age, or when we experience the loss of a job, a partner, or our health. As a result, most of us have been both victims and perpetrators of discrimination based on rank.
In summary, rankism occurs when those with authority use the power of their position to secure unwarranted advantages or benefits for themselves at the expense of others. It is the illegitimate use of rank, and equally, the use of rank illegitimately acquired or held. The familiar isms are all examples of the latter form. They are based on the construction and maintenance of differences in social rank that violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection under the law.
The relationship between rankism and the specific isms targeted by identity politics can be compared to that between cancer and its subspecies. For centuries the group of diseases that are now all seen as varieties of cancer were regarded as distinct illnesses. No one realized that lung, breast, and other organ-specific cancers all had their origins in a similar kind of cellular malfunction. In this metaphor, racism, sexism, homophobia, and other varieties of prejudice are analogous to organ-specific cancers and rankism is the blanket malady analogous to cancer itself. The familiar isms are subspecies of rankism. Just as medicine is now exploring grand strategies that will be applicable to all kinds of cancer, so too it may be more effective at this point to raise our sights and attack rankism itself rather than focusing on its individual varieties one by one.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from All Rise by Robert W. Fuller Copyright © 2006 by Robert W. Fuller. Excerpted by permission.
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Anonymous
Posted July 3, 2008
The emotions that Freud found in his early work on therapy and sexuality, shame and disgust, apparently surprised and puzzled him. The first of these two emotions played a large role in his study of hysteria 'Freud and Breuer 1895'. Freud suggested that shame was the main cause of hysterical neurosis. However his attention quickly shifted away from shame to guilt, which became the principal emotion in the work he did for the rest of his life. In terms of a broad understanding of the shape of everyday life, Freud¿s shift may have been unfortunate. Guilt can be a continuing presence in some neuroses, but it figures only intermittently in ordinary lives. Shame and embarrassment, on the other hand, may be virtually omnipresent, whether in the form of the emotion itself or, more frequently, anticipating it and struggling to avoid it. At least that idea haunts the work of Erving Goffman, the sociologist of social interaction. In his best known work, Presentation of Self in Everyday Life '1969' and in many other books and articles, Goffman gave detailed descriptions of the plight of the harried individual constantly trying to stave off embarrassment or humiliation by ¿impression management¿ 'Chapter 6, 1969'. One of the reasons that Goffman is widely read and appreciated is that most of his work offers many telling examples that the reader can easily identify with. He offers portraits of Everyperson trying their best to make good impressions, but alas, often our best is not good enough. These examples apparently strike a familiar chord with his readers. His use of examples is also problematic, however, because it is usually difficult to determine what point he is making. Goffman often attempts to define his concepts, but he seldom states a general thesis 'Scheff 2006'. This gap may be narrowed by Robert Fuller. Unlike Goffman, all of Fuller¿s work is not only illustrated by examples, but his theses are explicitly stated. Even more unlike Goffman, Fuller teases out both the theoretical and the practical implications of his approach. Although Fuller developed his ideas independently of Goffman¿s writings, his work is quite parallel, but much clearer. I believe that Fuller has made a powerful contribution to our understanding of some of the enigmas of our time, one that has the potential to help us surmount them. He has had an illustrious career first as physicist, then President of his alma mater, Oberlin College, as a citizen diplomat in Russia during the Cold War, chair of the board of Internews, and many other distinctions. His assessment of the problems of inequality and violence may be a still greater contribution. During the Cold War, his person-to-person contact with Russians of many ranks in different contexts helped him develop his own social psychology of cooperation and conflict. There are two main components in his approach: rankism, on the one hand, and dignity, on the other. The term rankism doesn¿t concern rank per se, only the abuse of rank. Some systems of rank are inherently abusive: white over black, male over female, hetero over homosexual, Christian over Muslim, extreme nationalism, and so on. But even legitimate systems of rank, those in most organizations, are often abusive if not in principle, then in practice. Fuller¿s principle concern is with dignity, which is identical to what Goffman called ¿face¿ and facework, as in saving or losing face. This perspective offers what seems to me to be a distinctive solution to the problem of inequality. That is, it doesn¿t concern economic rank or political hierarchy directly, but dignity and its opposite, humiliation, the term that Fuller uses rather than Goffman¿s embarrassment. This focus, as will be suggested below, may help with a problem that probably cannot be understood in strictly economic or political terms: gratuitous and/or interminable conflict. Fuller¿s analysis begins with what he calls micro-inequalities, t
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted June 9, 2006
Robert Fuller has written another extremely important book, one that takes a close look at how our institutions are changing and how we can change them to serve us better. We're all aware of how deflating many of our daily encounters can be. Here, each page makes us even more aware of the occasions when our dignity is being trampled---and what to do about it. It's a place we can turn for courage. I wish I had the means to put this book in the hands of those who make mainstream movies. I want to see a movie where the hero or group of heroines say just those things we wish we could think of when we've been embarrassed, put down, humiliated or dismissed. I don't mean what we usually say when we intend to give the perpetrator his lumps. I'd like to see an exciting, funny, sometimes somber, always thoughtful movie showing the hero moving through life's common indignities---but coping gracefully with them. As Fuller writes, 'Rankism can only be ended when people find a way to protect the dignity of their tormenters while at the same time suggesting to them a way to treat people with respect.' What we all need, as Fuller points out, is better models as illustrations of coping, a kind of verbal aikido which lets the person know that you've heard and received the injury, but that you're both bigger and smarter than that. In short, we need to have fun with our imaginations as we delve into deeper levels of response, levels where we're proud of our ability of think of new solutions, proud of how we've responded at the scene. We want ways to at least feel that we're left in a neutral position, rather than as enemies waiting for vengeance. What is more important in this historic period of our lives? We're all aware that we live on the brink of disaster---due to people's lack of imagination to do much more than act out conflicts through war. I suspect that many of us are frozen in fear, when what we need is just this kind of creative, imaginative response in the world. What if in rebuilding schools around the world, we not only built the schools, but sent the teachers off with cartons of Stephanie Heuer's book, 'I Feel Like Nobody When...I Feel Like Somebody When,' and let the children answer those two questions? It would help to create an atmosphere of openness, strength, respect and self-awareness from day one in those schools, preventing more catastropic Columbines. For those who read his previous book, 'Somebodies and Nobodies' and who wanted more concrete suggestions on how to deal with our daily indignities, 'All Rise' is the book which has some answers. Fuller wrote 'Somebodies and Nobodies' to illustrate the problems that rankism creates, and 'All Rise' gives us ideas about how to solve them. And while you're at it, take a look at his website where you'll find a lot more. If you're brand new to the concept of rankism, you can go to that site and take a tour of the dignity movement. If you've known about the concept for years, you can go to that site and find support as you bring the concept to others.
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Posted June 8, 2006
Robert Fuller's All Rise provides an analysis of the social costs of rankism, and it lays the groundwork for building a dignitarian society. Anyone who is interested in developing a set of core values capable of unifying the 'political middle' should check out this book!
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Posted June 7, 2006
I read Robert Fuller's first book in September of 2004 (Somebodies and Nobodies, Abuse of Rank), and it literally opened my eyes to a new concept of identifying rankism in the work place, and all other organizations I dealt with on a daily basis. After reading it, I wrote, what might be, the first resignation letter based on 'rankism' at the school where I was working. From there, the ideas in his book, inspired me to pursue writing my own children's book helping kids recognize and react too the somebody/nobody concept. His work is not about a book just idenitifying how rankism decays our society, but more about a movement which many of us wanted to join but didn't know where to sign up. All Rise,Somebodies and Nobodies and the Politics of Dignity, his second book, gives us working models for dignity in the workplace, personal relationships, government, and schools. With the cases presented, and models and templates, we can move forward with a dignitarian movement with a guide book of proven success stories, examples that show changes can occur. I hope people use it as a template for change for a more dignified society. This is not about a book, this is about a new way of thinking and a call for action. Join the movement towards a society free of rankism. Recognize it, identify it, and SAY something about it. Stephanie Heuer Peace Education Author I feel like nobody when... I feel like somebody when...
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Posted June 7, 2006
My 12 year old transferred schools mid semester. He was the 'mayor' of his old school...very popular. Now he says, 'I was a somebody, and now at the new school I am a nobody.' The new school is better but he wants out. It is easy to see it in kids, but Robert Fuller has identified an issue so pervasive and so ingrained that we adults don't even notice it. Sometimes it takes a great thinker (or a 12 year old) to show us the way. This is a book about how to treat and be treated with dignity. Both a global blueprint and a personal one. Like our racial blindness only 50 years ago, rankism needs to be isolated so we can see it and conquer it. And that is what Robert Fuller does with deceiving simplicity. I read the book on vacation. It is direct, simple and accessible. It makes its point with examples that will ring true to us all. Fuller makes his point so well, that it appears almost obvious. Buy it. Read it. And read it again. This book will stay with you even if you don't have a 12 year old at home.
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Posted June 7, 2006
Robert Fuller does a fabulous job of showing us that personal enlightenment needn't be a rare occurrence. He demystifies these breakthroughs in consciousness so they can happen far more frequently. This book reinforces my optimism about our ability to achieve a future of widespread mutual respect, valuing the dignity of all human beings. - John Renesch, author, Getting to the Better Future
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Overview
Robert Fuller's bestseller "Somebodies and Nobodies diagnosed and named the malady of rankism — "what somebodies may do to nobodies." In this sequel, he further explores the social and psychological costs of this problem and counters it with the vision of a "dignitarian" society. Drawing on his experiences as a scientist, college president, and public diplomat, Fuller identifies rankism as the chief obstacle to achieving the American vision of liberty and justice for all — and he spells out the steps required to ...