My Love, Your Love

Imagine a world in which its citizens embraced the idea of globalism. Not in the commercial sense, not in a shallow sense, but we respected our neighbors and owned their faults and differences much like we would a family member. This sounds like a fantasy world, right? I’ve heard many people (mostly Republicans) speak about the collapse of the world economy if such ridiculous attitude were established amongst the worlds population. But to me, Bob Marley’s words hold true, “Overcome the devils with a thing called love.”

Dr. Rob Burton, a wise and thoughtful man has brought to my attention his literary interpretation of many authors concerning a “floating world.” The acknowledgement of this floating world I believe is the first step in creating a universal love attitude. In a sense, we must understand that we are all human at the core of our being. Psychologists have studied human emotion and without fail, across cultures, humans are able to identify and express the same basic emotions. We all feel fear, anger, happiness, and disgust.

This is not to say that we must eliminate our identities. No, the opposite is true. We must all take pride and honor in our ancestry and celebrate family traditions. When we begin to “other” another culture, religion, or race because they are different is when death and destruction take place. Bessie Head wrote in Maru, “…then seemingly anything can be said and done to you as your outer appearance reduces you to the status of a non-human being”(11). This is the danger the world has faced many times; the holocaust, genocide of Native Americans, and is still facing today with the aboriginals in Australia. Along with Bob Marley, Bessie Head also endorsed the idea that “It is preferable to change the world on the basis of love of mankind” (12).

As well as across cultures, the world has been seeing an economic class barrier. In America, it is getting harder and harder to receive proper medical care for middle-class Americans. Many self-esteem issues arise because children feel they aren’t wearing the “right” clothes. Materialism and superficial needs are out-weighing love and respect. Salman Rushdie is a poignant literary figure who discusses the ill affects of materialism in his short story “At the Auction of the Ruby Slippers” in the book East, West. “We revere the ruby slippers because they can make us invulnerable to witches (and there are so many sorcerers pursuing us nowadays); because of their powers of reverse metamorphosis, their affirmation of a lost state of normalcy in which we have almost ceased to believe and to which the slippers promise us we can return; and because they shine like the footwear of the gods” (92). Rushdie is a satirical author who shows us that believing in these material things can be extremely dangerous and finding refuge in these things is foolish.

How easy is it to denounce our possessions? Not easy at all. In America, the media and social pressures make it harder than ever to give up material things, but not impossible. If all people, including Americans began to realize, “the narrative that we compose for ourselves may or may not agree with the mainstream narratives around us” (Burton 131) perhaps it would be easier to transcend through cultural differences, material superficialities, and religiously charged battles throughout the world.

“Give Peace a Chance” - John Lennon