The Nobody Manifesto

The Nobody Movement

Robert Fuller concluded Somebodies and Nobodies with The Nobody Manifesto. Since there is now a Nobody Movement afoot, it seems like the time is ripe to reissue the manifesto!

The Nobody Manifesto

Who are the nobodies? Those with less power. At the moment.

Who are the somebodies? Those with more power. At the moment. Power is signified by rank. Rank in a particular setting. Somebodies hold higher rank than nobodies. In that setting. For that moment.

A somebody in one setting can be a nobody in another, and vice versa. A somebody now might be a nobody a moment later, and vice versa.

Abuse of the power inherent in rank is rankism. When somebodies use the power of their position in one setting to exercise power in another, that‟s rankism. When somebodies use the power of their position to put a permanent hold on their power, that, too, is rankism.

Dignity is innate, nonnegotiable, and inviolate. No person‟s is any less worthy of respect, any less sacred than anyone else‟s. Equal dignity requires equal opportunity. Rankism is an indefensible abridgment of the dignity of nobodies, and a stain on the honor of somebodies.

As once and future nobodies, we‟re all potential victims of rankism. As would-be somebodies, we‟re all potential perpetrators. Securing equal dignity means overcoming rankism.

Who are the nobodies? They are Everyman, Everywoman, Everychild. Each of us in our secret dreams of becoming someone new, something more. The nobodies are us. Therein our power.

Nobodies of the world, unite! We have nothing to lose but our shame.

Power to the people!

Rankism

Rankism: A Social Disorder

An undiagnosed disorder is at large in the world. It afflicts individuals, groups, and nations. It distorts our personal relationships, erodes our will to learn, taxes our economic productivity, stokes , and incites nations to war. It is the cause of dysfunctionality, and sometimes even violence, in families, schools, and the workplace.

Over the course of history, the most common of power have acquired special names:

. tyranny . . colonialism . child and elder . . . . sexual harrassment . . corporate corruption . . clergy misconduct . rape .

Each of these practices is an abuse of the weak by the strong. Each of these familiar named offenses is an instance of bullying, of pulling rank, of putting people down. By analogy with abuses based on race and gender, abuse based on rank is called rankism.

1. n. abuse, , or exploitation based on rank 2. n. abusive, discriminatory, or exploitative behavior towards people who have less power because of their lower rank in a particular hierarchy

Once you have a name for it, you see rankism at the heart of many infringements of , far away or close to home. Rankism is the root cause of indignity, injustice, and unfairness. Choosing the term rankism, places the goal of universal human dignity in the context of contemporary movements for civil rights. Reexamining racism, sexism, and as examples of rankism breathes new life into the movements opposing them. Identifying rankism in all its guises and overcoming it is democracy‟s next step.

Isn’t Pulling Rank Human Nature?

Sure it is. But changing attitudes toward racism and sexism suggest that we can also change our attitudes toward rank-based discrimination. If anything is human nature, it is the will to democracy, that is, the will to curtail abuses of rank by acting together to create systems of governance that circumscribe authority.

The first step is to become aware of rank as an excuse for abuse. As we become adept at distinguishing between the legitimate and illegitimate uses of rank, collective opposition to rank's abuses becomes possible.

Rankism’s Toll

On Personal Relationships In personal relations, the abuse of rank is experienced as an to dignity. Our antennae are tuned to detect the slightest trace of condescension or indignity in others' treatment of us. Pulling rank takes the form of disrespect, , disdain, „dissing‟, berating, snobbery, and . Even when not deliberately malicious, rank abuse can still warp and deform our interactions.

On Productivity While on a visit to Philadelphia, George Washington noticed that free men there could do in “two or three days what would employ [his slaves] a month or more.” His explanation that slaves had no chance “to establish a good name [and so were] too regardless of a bad one” was that of a practical man concerned with the bottom line, not that of a moralizer, and therefore all the more telling.

Today, employers are not dealing with slaves, though it is sometimes argued that wage- earners are wage-slaves and salaried employees are only marginally more independent. Negative motivation – fear of demotion or job loss – is now dwarfed by the positive motivation that comes from being part of a team of responsible professionals. Eliminating malrecognition in the work place is proving as good for the bottom line as eliminating malnutrition was for the productivity of day laborers.

On Learning The real and imagined threat of rank abuse pervades all our educational institutions – from kindergarten through graduate school. Finding and holding one's position in a hierarchy takes priority over all else. In any institution with gradations of rank, protecting one's dignity from insult and injury siphons attention and energy away from learning.

No child – no human being – is expendable. Everyone has something to contribute, and when that contribution is made and acknowledged, he or she feels like a somebody. Helping individuals locate that something and contribute it is the proper business of education.

On Leadership In any institution, rank-based discrimination limits the access of potential high performers to better jobs by inhibiting movement among ranks. It also puts those holding high rank under the kind of stress that gradually undercuts the creativity that brought them success in the first place.

Repeating themselves gradually separates somebodies from their creative source, depleting them until they become empty shells. With enough repetitions, they begin to wonder why they ever thought they had anything to offer. Burnout is an occupational hazard of somebodyness.

On Spirit Our passions are unique and personal. They grow out of our questions, out of the contradictions we feel with other people, with others' work, or with society. Initially we wonder Who's right? What's beautiful? What's fair? What's true? We're not sure. Our questions generate our individuality. Through our response to them, we define ourselves, we become someone in particular. Rank, social and otherwise, still keeps many from cultivating their questions into life-altering quests.

Read personal stories about the trickle-down consequences of rankism here.

Dignity

Dignity: A Universal Right

The U. S. Declaration of Independence asserts that “all men are created equal.” Many have struggled with the meaning of that phrase, because it‟s obvious that we are unequal in lots of ways, for example, health, wealth, looks, talents, skills, etc. But, our differences need not be an excuse for invidious comparisons, let alone for humiliation and indignity. On the contrary, our differences are an important source of the delight we take in each other.

The Declaration of Independence tasked the nation not only with protecting life and liberty but also with providing fairness and justice. While people are equal not in their endowments or attainments, they are equal in dignity and must be treated so. What would such a dignitarian society look like?

1. adj. a condition in which the dignity of all people is honored and protected 2. n. a person who advocates for a dignitarian society, one whose conduct and attitudes are dignitarian

Each of us has an innate sense that we have the same inherent worth as anyone else. Every religion teaches us so. We experience this as a birthright – a cosmic fact that cannot be undone by any person, circumstance, institution, or government.

That is why rankism is experienced on the deepest level as an affront to dignity. Like any animal vulnerable to being preyed upon, we're supersensitive to threats to our well-being. We're alert to subtle attempts to determine our relative strength, from “innocent” opening lines such as “Who are you with?” to more probing queries regarding our ancestry or education.

In proclaiming a right to “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,” the Declaration of Independence touched on making dignity a fundamental right. Liberty means freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control. Therefore, the right to liberty, by militating against rankism, affords a large measure of protection to our dignity. Likewise the right to pursue happiness is meaningless in the absence of the dignity inherent in full and equal citizenship.

Given the remarkable achievements of the identity-based liberation movements, it's not unrealistic to imagine a day when everyone's equal dignity will be as self-evident as everyone's right to own property or to vote.

Dignitarian Society

Modeling a Dignitarian Society

In addition to everything else they have accomplished, the liberation movements of recent decades can be seen as preparing us to confront rankism. Although the analysis of rankism may at first seem more complex than that of the familiar isms, there is one way in which tackling rankism is actually easier: everyone knows its sting.

The Dignity Movement

The dignity movement stands on the shoulders of all other liberation movements. Although these have done much to advance human and civil rights, there are still, even in the most advanced democracies, significant numbers of people living with indignity and injustice. While the goals of the emerging dignity movement support and reinforce those of earlier social movements, the movement for dignity is unlikely to resemble the iconic televised images of movements past. That is because rank is defined within various social and civic organizations. Therefore, attempts to overcome rankism are apt to arise within these separate institutions rather than “in the streets” in the form of an easily visible, unified whose members share some trait.

When the dignity movement targets illegitimate uses of rank, it is likely to manifest not in million-man marches in the nation‟s capital, but rather in millions of schools, businesses, health care facilities, churches, and families across the country – that is, within the relationships and organizations in which rank is being abused. The specificity of rank – parent, coach, boss, teacher, doctor, rabbi, roshi, imam, or priest – means that a dignitarian society will be built relationship by relationship, organization by organization.

The Greek mathematician Archimedes said:

“Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum strong enough, and I will move the world.”

Our lever is the will to dignity. Our fulcrum is the stand against rankism. Together, they will generate a force strong enough to change the world.

To create a movement you need to know both what you‟re for and what you‟re against. That‟s why the concept of rankism is essential. Without it a movement for dignity is toothless. Try to imagine a absent the concept of racism, or a women‟s movement without the concept of sexism. Until the targets of injustice have a name for what they‟re suffering, it‟s very hard to organize a resistance. In some situations, they may even their predicament on themselves and each other, never achieving the solidarity necessary to compel their tormentors to stop. The Importance of Model Building

In building a dignitarian society, no tool will prove more valuable than modeling. Modeling has enabled humans to harness power and it can equally help us limit its damages. Once we have this tool in our repertoire, we'll apply it to reshape our institutions so they become dignitarian.

Models are everywhere and they provide us with useful representations of the world and ourselves. They also serve a variety of functions. Among these are to provide us a sense of identity, shape our behavior, maintain social order, and guide our use of power. Here are some common, every-day examples of models:

1. Grand unifying models are the holy grail of every branch of science. In chemistry, it's Mendeleyev's periodic table of the elements. In biology, it‟s Darwin‟s theory of evolution by natural selection. 2. When we use parents, heroes, public figures, and fictional characters as “role models,” we're using models to shape our character. 3. Social models include charters, by-laws, organizational charts, and even the 10 commandments. 4. Business models, by examining a range of scenarios based on various assumptions, forecast success or failure in the market place.

By modeling the uses of power and choosing only those that protect dignity, we can do for standards of justice what modeling nature has done for standards of living. Conducting dignity impact studies in advance may sound far-fetched and utopian now, but this was true at one time of environmental impact studies, which are now mandatory. Furthermore, what we're calling dignity impact studies isn‟t really a new thing. People do the equivalent every time they imagine the effect on someone of something they are about to do or say.

It is now time for our institutions to apply this tool systematically to their anticipated uses of power with an eye on their impact on dignity.

Likely Features of Emerging Dignitarian Institutions

It's impossible to tell in advance precisely what an organization will look like after it turns itself into a dignitarian one. This is because the process of transformation must be one in which everyone involved has a voice and everyone's views have some political weight. But here are some things that dignitarian institutions might do:

1. Recognize and Listen 2. Facilitate Questions & Protect Dissent 3. Hold Accountable and Affix Responsibility 4. Incorporate Flexible Rank 5. Compensate Equitably 6. Delegate Responsibility 7. Break the Taboo on Rank 8. Be Transparent 9. Flatten Unnecessary Hierarchies 10. Promote Peer to Peer Organization 20 Ways

20 Ways to Combat Rankism

1. Break the taboo on rank. Make it a safe subject for discussion in the workplace.

2. Acknowledge the roles of others and support equitable compensation.

3. Keep your promises to “somebodies” and “nobodies” alike.

4. Teach your children their rights. Respect children so they will be respectful.

5. Honor your Inner Nobody and your Inner Somebody alike.

6. Be aware rankism begets rankism. If you‟re feeling frustrated, don‟t pick on someone of lower rank; and don‟t kick the dog!

7. Encourage respect for the other side in sports, debate, and daily life.

8. Think about what you want to pass on. And do it.

9. Health care providers can enlist patients as partners.

10. Show the world dignity through your profession.

11. Recognize that servers are people, too.

12. Try to see outside your position and build a model that synthesizes your outlook with the views of others.

13. Give recognition to someone who deserves it.

14. Bring dignity to law enforcement and conflict resolution.

15. Choose not to participate in disrespectful jokes or conversations.

16. Give your attention to someone you might normally avoid interacting with. Someone with a . Someone of another culture. Someone of a different faith.

17. Assist or advocate for immigrants, homeless individuals, the disabled, the elderly, anyone who is especially vulnerable to assaults on their dignity.

18. Offer assistance to someone who may not be getting the help or recognition he or she needs – an elderly neighbor, a new mother, a caregiver.

19. Ask questions about people in authority. Do they use their power to help others, or to keep them down? Have they earned their authority or are they just assuming it?

20. Exemplify rather than exhort.

Future

What the Future Holds

Establishing a dignitarian society will be no tea party. - Robert W. Fuller in All Rise

The dignity movement is already underway and quietly gathering momentum. As a dignitarian culture forms in the crevices and shadows of the current social consensus, and institutions restructure themselves, a tipping point approaches. When will it be reached? Ten years from now? Fifty? No one knows. With prior movements, there were decades when nothing seemed to be happening and then, without any perceivable warning, weeks of momentous change. Most movements begin stealthily and this one for dignity is no exception. But, in due course, all of them end up in our face and one day not too long from now, the dignity movement will be similarly plain to see.

Of course, when set beside current events, the model of a dignitarian society may very well sound utopian. New social models inevitably do until moments before a new consensus displaces a prevailing one. As it turned out, Martin Luther King, Jr.'s “I have a dream” speech was not an impossible dream. It was a timely prophecy of America's imminent emergence as a multicultural society, with global ramification as well.

Every movement must deal with the reaction of those who believe it to be against their interests. In this case, as it grows in numbers, Nobody Liberation – the dignity movement – will be opposed by Somebodies using all the tactics arrayed against earlier uprisings. These range from ridicule to violent suppression, censorship to sabotage, agent provocateurs, fifth columnists, and co-option. But in the end the power elite will lose its will to resist.

Nothing can suppress forever the will to dignity, not even the will to power. In the long run dignity, like liberty, cannot and will not be denied. Indeed, liberty and dignity go hand in hand and neither will be secure until both are.