Book Review

By Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

Dignity for All
How to Create a World Without Rankism
Robert W. Fuller, Pamela A. Gerloff
Berrett-Koehler Publishers 06/08 Paperback $13.95
ISBN: 9781576757895

We honored Robert Fuller's Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank as one of the Best Spiritual Books of 2003. This follow-up is a handbook on how to identify, challenge, and prevent rankism. Fuller, the former president of Oberlin College, and change consultant Pamela Gerloff present the lineaments of a dignitarian movement. They define rankism as "abuse of the power attached to rank," giving the following examples:

"When a boss shouts at an employee, that's rankism. When a doctor demeans a nurse, that's rankism. When a consumer is rude to a waitress, that's rankism. When a professor exploits a graduate student, that's rankism. When a company executive has an intimate relationship with an intern, and she loses a job over it, but he doesn't, that's rankism."

In all of these examples, the victims feel humiliation, shame, guilt, or sadness, knowing that their basic dignity has been demeaned. Fuller and Gerloff state that racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, ageism, and other isms are subspecies of rankism. They also note that rankism is often marked by the three S's: secrecy, silencing, and snobbery. The Golden Rule is held up as a ethical model for respecting the dignity of all.

The authors point to the movements the have advanced the digniarian cause: the civil rights movement in America, the quest to end apartheid in South Africa, and the downfall of tyrannical governments in formerly Iron Curtain countries. Fuller and Gerloff delineate some of the ways rankism can be prevented: talking about it, identifying and targeting it, detecting warning signs of it, standing up to it, and working with others to establish a dignitarian future. Be sure to check out the Ten Principles That Serve as a Basis for a Dignitarian Culture!

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by Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat