WHAT YOU TALKIN' 'BOUT, WILLIS?

Good stuff on ethics

Met Dr. Robert W. Fuller today who gave a couple of speeches on the issues related to rankism or using your rank to exploit those under you. Here is a snippet from the press release on the event:

Robert W. Fuller, the author of Somebodies and Nobodies: Overcoming the Abuse of Rank, will be speaking in the Auditorium of the University Center. He will discuss his thesis that, throughout history, and especially today, what he has denoted as "rankism" has been a pervasive factor in the disenfranchisement of people and the frustration that leads to underachievement, non-productivity, prejudice, discrimination, and all other manner of social malaise.

Fuller had a really poignant illustration from his childhood about a little girl in his Kindergarten who was singled out by the teacher for basically being "white trash" (he's from up north, so whatever they call that up there). Later in his life he realized that situation was an early indication of our society's division between "somebodies and nobodies."

An interesting point he made was that the victims of the Katrina disaster though black, were more correctly victims of being nobodies--they wielded no power. This occurs when you realize you can actually break your promises to someone, and there is no reason for you not to let them down. I thought that was apt.