Clueless at the Top: While the Rest of Us Turn Elsewhere for Life, Liberty, and Happiness [Paperback]

Charlotte Childress (Author), Harriet Childress (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 30, 2004

Life, liberty, and happiness a noble vision, but our founders also handed down a powerful obstacle: hierarchical thinking. From childhood, we learn to rank people by the status society assigns them, rather than by their abilities and contributions. Whether in plain sight or hidden from view, hierarchical influence pervades government, corporate culture, our educational system, religious institutions, and the media not even our bedrooms are off limits. Mired in their ways, our leaders resist change. Their obsolete thinking prevents the nation from leading by inspiration rather than intimidation, and from guaranteeing all of its citizens the rights promised in the Constitution, and the equal opportunity to enjoy rewarding, productive, and healthful lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 322 pages
• Publisher: Cypress House (October 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1879384566
• ISBN-13: 978-1879384569
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,874,773 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Examining Hierarchies, October 23, 2004

By 

M. M. Drew (Woodburn, OR, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clueless at the Top: While the Rest of Us Turn Elsewhere for Life, Liberty, and Happiness (Paperback)

Clueless at the Top is an amazing book. It examines a complex subject using the deceptively simple and very accessible means of anecdotal tales that remind me of parables.

The idea of the book is that our society is made up of many hierarchies. You might simultaneously be at the top of one hierarchy and the bottom of another. For example, if you are a white woman and a single parent who has a job as an executive in a Fortune 500 company, you are at the top of the race hierarchy, the bottom of the gender and marriage hierarchies, and the top of the employment hierarchy.

But the book doesn't simply suggest that you find out which hierarchies you are a part of. It analyzes our country, historically and in the present, and the effects of the hierarchical system on all of us. We lose power when we participate in the hierarchies. The Childress sisters urge us to dismantle the hierarchies and create a true democracy where everyone is equal and everyone has equal access to life, liberty, and happiness.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, An Explanation For What I Have Been Going Through, March 6, 2006

By 

Nancy Illing "educator and author" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Clueless at the Top: While the Rest of Us Turn Elsewhere for Life, Liberty, and Happiness (Paperback)

I was working for a dysfunctional organization. I experienced frustration, feelings of inadequacy, and eventually physical symptoms. I watched the best people leave, like rats deserting a sinking ship. Finally I left too. As I analyzed the evolution of the problems at work, the words "clueless at the top" expressed the problem precisely. When I saw the title of this book I had to read it and I'm glad I did.

Anyone who has ever worked in a bureaucracy will recognize the signs. But are you aware of the dangers? The problems inherent in a hierarchy and the stress that results has led many people to quit the rat race and find a better way.

Despite our founders vision of equality, we still live in a culture of hierarchies. Like children comparing age on the playground, we enter each new situation and quickly size up the pecking order. Charlotte and Harriet Childress expose the insidiousness of hierarchies and explain why we should care.

Join the authors on a journey of discovery. Uncover the signs of a hierarchy and you will understand why they are detrimental. Most rewarding of all, you will realize that we do not have to live with hierarchies. Clueless at the Top will give you the vision to create healthy alternatives and live freely by your own direction.

The freedom you feel when you understand the cause of your unhappiness is worth the price of the book. The positive approach to a better way of living is the frosting on the cake.

And if you think that this book doesn't pertain to you, I dare you to read it and find out why you may be "cluless at the top."

Nancy Illing, author of SPARKS Ignite Imagination