There's no place like (insert local identity here)

Peace comes from being able to contribute the best that we have, and all that we are, toward creating a world that supports everyone. But it is also securing the space for others to contribute the best that they have and all that they are.

      -- Hafsat Abiola

    Ask any beauty pageant contestant what she wishes for above all else and you will hear the response, "world peace." It is a widely sought after ideal with no real answer. Most think the key is a world identity, a uniting of people of all countries under a global identity. Especially as Americans we tend assume a global world means a happy world, with equality and unending support to and from each country. Unfortunately communism is not a working concept and the idea of a globalized world will most likely lead to oppression and depression, with the only gain occurring in a capital setting.

    We see a manifestation of this in Salaman Rushdie's The Auction of the Ruby Slippers. In this short story we are introduced to a world without borders.  The earth is a global economy, a global territory.  Even reality is not longer a border as we see fictional characters taking part in a bidding war for Dorothy's famed magic shoes.  The shoes are the central object in this story. Representing materialism, desperation and regret they have attracted bidders from every corner of life. Each character wants to get their hands on the slippers because they want a chance. A chance to go back home which has become a foreign concept to this global world.

    "Accordingly, in addition to the standard facilities provided for the comfort and security of the more notable personages, extra-large bronze cuspidors have been placed in the vestibules and toilets, for the use of the physically sick; teams of psychiatrists of varying disciplines have been installed in strategically located neo-Gothic confessional booths, to counsel the sick at heart.  Most of us nowadays are sick."

    Rushdie paints a picture of a depressed and desperate world. The citizens of this are portrayed as sick. They have the diagnosis of homelessness and fear created by a lack of borders and there for identity. There is no place to call home, no place for security or national identity.  The idealistic idea of global identity leading to peace has been actualized into a place where nothing you do matters, who you are does not matter and where you are coming from is an obsolete question.  The only worth you have is the money in your pocket which may or may not allow you to buy a way back to a magical world of borders and identity where people had the ability to care about one another.

    As we see these themes repeat throughout this short story a new idea emerges. The importance of differences. What makes you you, and me me is something sacred and important. It is how we define who we are and what is important to us. Without this identity our actions and beliefs mean nothing. And if your actions and beliefs mean nothing it is easy to assume that we as individuals mean nothing, and further more life means nothing. It is easy to see then why a globalized world would lead to sickness and regret.  It could give a whole new meaing to the term "The Great Depression."