All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) [Hardcover]

Robert W Fuller (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 25, 2006 | Series: BK Currents (Hardcover)

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Educator and humanitarian Fuller follows up his Somebodies and Nobodies with this stimulating, scattershot manifesto on the fight against "rankism," or the abuse of power based on rank. While the notion subsumes racism, sexism and class inequality, rankism also addresses the thousand daily insults—inflicted by playground bullies, abusive bosses, officious bureaucrats, condescending academics and snobs—that everyone suffers in a hierarchical, status-conscious society. Fuller's program for a "dignitarian society" emphasizes fine-grained reform of institutions and interpersonal relations, with lots of committee meetings and frank dialogues with rankist reprobates. A physicist by training, Fuller advances a deliberately vague, liberalish policy agenda, featuring schemes for conducting "dignity impact studies before authorizing new uses of power." Fuller insists that the dispassionate discussion of provisional "models" of reality can resolve any dispute without recourse to rank-pulling; religious fundamentalists and rationalists, for example, should just "build a 'meta-model' that reconciles the antagonists' views on basic methodological issues." Fuller's high-mindedness sometimes verges on naïveté, but his provocative analysis illuminates a rich vein of social discontent.
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Review

"All Rise gives us a clear mandate for transforming our society into a true democracy." -- Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bee Moms and Kingpin Dads

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 203 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers; Annotated edition (May 25, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576753859
• ISBN-13: 978-1576753859
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #388,637 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After earning his Ph.D. in physics at Princeton University in 1961, Robert Fuller taught at Columbia University and co-authored the book Mathematics of Classical and Quantum Physics. The mounting social unrest of the 1960s drew his attention to educational reform, and in 1970 he was appointed president of his alma mater Oberlin College at the age of 33. In 1970 Fuller traveled to India (as a consultant to Indira Gandhi) and, returning the next year, he witnessed firsthand the famine resulting from the war with Pakistan over what became Bangladesh. With the election of Jimmy Carter, Fuller began a campaign to persuade the new president to end world hunger. His meeting with Carter in the Oval Office in June 1977 led to the establishment of the Presidential Commission on World Hunger. During the 1980s, Fuller traveled frequently to the USSR, working as a citizen-scientist to improve the Cold War relationship. This work led to the creation of the non-profit global corporation Internews, which promotes democracy via free and independent media, and for many years Fuller served as its chairman. With the collapse of the USSR, Fuller's work as a citizen diplomat came to a close and he began reflecting on his career and came to understand that he had, at various times, been a somebody and a nobody and the cycle was continuing. His periodic sojourns in Nobodyland led him to identify and investigate rankism defined as abuse of the power inherent in rank and ultimately to write Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank (New Society Publishers, 2003). A sequel on building a dignitarian society is titled All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (Berrett-Koehler, 2006). With co-author Pamela Gerloff, he published Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism (Berrett-Koehler, 2008).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My 12 year old gets it, why is it so difficult for me?, May 30, 2006

By 

Larry Miller (New York, NY United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

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.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Antidote to Violence, May 29, 2006

By 

Linne Gravestock (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

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 at [...], 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.

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars All Rise; A t Working Template for change in our World, May 29, 2006

By 

Stephanie Heuer - See all my reviews

This review is from: All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) (Hardcover)

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...