Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism [Paperback]

Robert W. Fuller (Author), Pamela A. Gerloff (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2008

Dignity for All: It's Time!

In his books Somebodies and Nobodies and All Rise, Robert Fuller exposed rankism--abuse of the power inherent in rank to exploit or humiliate someone of lower rank. In Dignity for All, Fuller and Pamela Gerloff offer a concise, action-oriented guide to the concrete steps we can take to eradicate it. They focus on us as individuals--how we can recognize rankism in our own experiences, even in ourselves, and how, on a day-to-day basis, we can help others to see its insidious influence and work with them to create a better world.

Fuller and Gerloff offer advice on the best ways to forcefully but compassionately bring rankist behavior to light. They include examples of rankism in action as well as the often surprisingly simple things people have done to counteract it. Perhaps most importantly, they show how we can prevent rankism from taking root in the first place. Dignity for All will help you map out your own personal strategy for creating a society in which every human being feels truly valued and respected.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise from the Publisher

"Rankism is far more encompassing than racism, sexism, or ageism and it must be our prime target from now on."
--Studs Terkel, Pulitzer prize-winning author of Working

"Dignity for All gives us the essential tools to stop abuses of rank and to build high-performing institutions and organizations based on respect."
--Wes Boyd, co-founder, MoveOn.org

"This handbook brings an exciting new voice to social science and to the public as well. I believe that these ideas are destined to play an important role in our century."
--Thomas J. Scheff, Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of California Santa Barbara

"A clear mandate for transforming our society into a true democracy."
--Rosalind Wiseman, author of Queen Bees and Wannabes

About the Author

Robert W. Fuller is internationally recognized for his pioneering work on dignity and rankism. His work has been widely covered in the media, including The New York Times, Oprah magazine, NPR, C-SPAN, The Boston Globe, and the Voice of America.

Pamela A. Gerloff is the founder of Compelling Vision(tm), a consulting business which provides presentations, training, and consulting to individuals and organizations seeking to create dignitarian environments.

Product Details

• Paperback: 104 pages
• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers (June 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1576757897
• ISBN-13: 978-1576757895
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #580,302 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

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Off-Site, Gift, or Personal Improvement Book, June 9, 2009

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism (Paperback)

I had previously read and reviewed All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) and as much as I liked that first book, this is the one I recommend as a broad use item. It is ideal for any company or organizational off-set as a pre-arrival required reading, as a gift (including as an anonymous gift to the rankism-challenged, and as a personal easy to read book.

I myself have been terribly guilty of rankism, primarily in the customer service arena, where mediocre service has roused my fury and I have been less than stellar at realizing that it's not the person, it's the system, and so many others are responsible for the mediocrity that I am a fool for taking it out on the one person I can see.

Where this book renders a very useful service is in the naming of the anti-thesis to dignity, i.e. rankism. This is not a book about dignity, but rather about rankism in all its forms and how that robs all of us of dignity, but especially those least able to handle the inequalities including (new term for me) micro-inequalities--the subtle pecking to death by ducks, e.g. being interrupted constantly, not noticed, etc.

I have been focusing on integrity recently, on truth, and I confess that I have not given enough thought to the tact side of the equation. This book is persuasive in saying that truth by itself is not enough, truth must be accompanied by tact, or as I have it in my notes, "Integrity plus dignity = informed democracy."

There are 24 sidebars, each a little gem, the key points are summarized at the end of each chapter, and I believe this book finally meets the need for a Citizen 101 Guide.

Among my fly-leaf notes:

1. Lack of dignity is a driver toward violence and unreason. This joins a mantra from elsewhere, that anger and violence generally stem from a feeling of being treated unfairly.

2. Dignity should be the first human right.

3. Costs of not providing dignity are enormous. The following is quoted from pages 3-4:

"The consequences of violating others' dignity are evident in widespread social problems such as high rates of school dropout, prison incarceration, violent crime, depression, suicide, divorce, and despair; in the business world in reduced creativity, lower productivity, or disloyalty to the organization. Even health and longevity areaffected."

While the above is grossly simplistic, it is important and merits note.

4. Rnakism is the "root" "ism" e.g. for sexism, racism, etc, the one that fosters all other isms by artificially elevating one person over another.

5. Dignitarian intervention breaks the rankism cycle. John Steiner intervened with me one time in Denver, and I have to say that without having read this book, I did not quite see his point. Those intervening should anticipate not being understood the first several times.

6. HUMILITY in leaders signifies an open mind willing to listen to everybody. I have just finished giving up on the leaders of the U.S. intelligence community as they live in "closed circles" and are like Henry Kissinger when David Elsberg counseled him, becoming like morons in that they rely too much on narrow secrets and allow their "closed circle" to shut out all those who actually have ground truth real world experience. See my review of Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers

7. The vignettes are not to be skipped. As impatient a reader as I am, I realized after a few of them that they comprise in the aggregate a 360 degree repetition of the basic lesson in many more naunced ways.

8. Secrecy and silencing are part of the Borg as I have tekn to calling it, the "establishment" in which neither Bush nor Obama really controls anything, the "system" goes on with its Wall Street ubber alles and two parties doing the bidding of special interests. Snobbery (think Council on Foreign Relations), bullying (think clearances removed from whistle-blowers) and blackballing (think CIA never hiring anyone critical of their nonsense) are all part of the Borg.

9. The book ends with comments on truth and reconciliation, of which I am a huge fan, believing the USA needs at least two--one for what has been done to We the People including our Native Americans and people of color, another for what has been done around the world "in our name" and at our expenses. Appreciative inquiry is discussed, as well as shared governances and shared evaluation.

Bottom line: this may well be the one book and the one idea that We the People cannot do without.

I also recommend:
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The New Golden Rule: Community And Morality In A Democratic Society
Communitas: Means of Livelihood and Ways of Life
Orbiting the Giant Hairball: A Corporate Fool's Guide to Surviving with Grace
We the Purple: Faith, Politics, and the Independent Voter
Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Social Movement in History Is Restoring Grace, Justice, and Beauty to the World
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revising core cultural beliefs, August 11, 2008

By 

R. J. Miller (Burlington, VT USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism (Paperback)

Authors Robert Fuller and Pamela Gerloff propose an audacious goal: "to outline a pathway into a bold new world." They maintain that the failure to afford dignity to all persons is at the root of much of the unnecessary suffering, injustice and violence in the world, and that the simple (though elusive) intention to treat each individual with respect could provide societies with a fundamentally different moral and ethical compass. A "dignitarian" society, or a "culture of dignity," would fully honor the founding principles of American democracy and universal principles of human rights. According to Fuller and Gerloff, modern democracies have advanced toward these principles by identifying and addressing social realms where injustice has existed, and now, the simple conceptual tool of "rankism" enables us to identify, and begin to root out, the widespread abuse of power arising from social status and position. They suggest that "rankism" may well be the "overarching ism" that fuels all the specific variants of inequality, discrimination, and oppression.

The book is written in a deceptively simple style, to demonstrate that individuals can begin to recognize the many subtle ways that rankism operates in common, everyday behavior. The book does not propose a sophisticated political, ideological, or economic analysis because the authors suggest that the shift from rankism to dignitarian society is more basic, more elemental, than those layers of social reality. In this sense, the book's analysis offers a practical variation on Riane Eisler's concept of "dominator" vs. "partnership" cultural orientations--broad cultural templates that underpin a wide range of institutions, beliefs, and mundane, taken-for-granted habits.

Dignity for All does not dwell on this or other theories, but focuses on specific strategies for rooting out the dominator (rankist) mindset wherever it might be found. It is a handbook for a subtle revolution in values that could lead to a more collaborative, egalitarian society.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Practical Approaches for Creating a Better Society, July 29, 2008

By 

John D. Mccann (Lovell, Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Dignity for All: How to Create a World Without Rankism (Paperback)

This new book by Robert Fuller and Pamela Gerloff builds on the seminal work of Dr. Fuller on the subject of rankism. (See Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank and All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents (Hardcover)) Those earlier works identified and defined the concept of rankism, which is "the abuse of the power attached to rank". More than just another "ism", rankism in fact encompasses all the isms (sexism, racicm, etc) because they all deal with someone abusing their power to get what they want. By identifying the problem, the authors give us the ability to understand and deal with it.

This new book provides practical and useable advise on how to recognize rankism in others (easy) and in ourselves (much harder). It also provides gives tools to raise the issue in a way that is respectful of all parties. One of the hardest things to do is to respond to someone who is treating us without dignity in a way that demonstrates dignity for the offender. Yet, that is the only way to break the cycle of rankism.

Told largely through the use of stories and examples, the book is an easy and enlightening read.

Both as an overview of the subject of rankism, and as a treatise on how to address the issue, this book is highly recommended.