Final Thoughts on Existing in the Floating World: Giving Notice and Voices to All

    I once read on the back of a coaster, “If ignorance is bliss, why aren’t there more happy people?”  Catchy, right?  It made me chuckle at first, and still does a little, but it also made me never want to put in that category of “the ignorant.”  Once as a student at CSU San Jose, and now at CSU Chico, I have been exposed to many new and different ideas in classes that I have taken.  Not in any class have we dealt the idea of a portion of Earth’s population, floating as if in limbo, and I think it is on this subject where people can be most ignorant.   Some might ask, “so what?” or “what does that have to do with me?”  But it is that very attitude that so gravely affects those disenfranchised, voiceless people with no frames of reference or culture that will accept them.  In multi-cultural literature studies course this semester, my class was asked to examine this very topic through the writing of authors Kazou Ishiguro, Bessie Head, Bharati Mukherjee, Salman Rushdie, and Rob Burton.  After taking this course, I realize that reexamining my perspective on the effects of globalization is necessary to accurately understand what is going on outside of the country.  The biggest responsibility of a global citizen I think, is to “peek over the fence,” so to speak, that has been created by the America’s mainstream media. 
   
    In Kazou Ishiguro’s book, An Artist of the Floating World, he examines that issue of the ends justifying the means or the means justifying the ends.  Which ever you look at a situation, it is going to have consequences, whether they are good or bad, it is reality.  In the novel, Masuji Ono, the main character reflects back on a “good” life, but in doing so, has to confront demons from an ends justify the means mentality.  At the time, his actions seemed warranted, but in the floating, ever-changing world, they had dire affects on those close to him.  How does this book apply to a global audience?  It gives people insight to look at their existence being much smaller than they might think.  It reminds people that their actions have more of an affect on the changing world around them then they might be able to see at that time.  By simply acknowledging that fact is the first step towards their new humanitarian identity.
   
    On a daily basis, I am asked if I have any spare change to donate by homeless people outside of convenient stores.  I usually do not carry change on my person, but when I do, I more often than not contribute to what I hope will the next meal or tall can of beer or liquor.  Sometimes I am not asked for change, but only hear the random mutterings of what I used to think of a psychotically deranged person, probably having an acid flashback or something.  Bessie Head, late author from South Africa would not appreciate that mentality.  In her novel, A Question of Power, she writes about a woman who struggles with living with personal demons that resulted from the lack of frames of reference.  In America, in part from our families but more recently a majority from mainstream media, we are given frames from many different sources that help us cope with our experiences.  One frame is heritage, how we arrived on the planet through following our family tree, which gives most people a starting or launching point.  A very important one is religion, which helps some deal with the thought of their inevitable mortality.   So when I see or meet people that do not strike us as sane, or down to Earth, I have remember that he or she should not to be judged by the frames that have been given to me, but accepted as a person of this floating and ever-changing world that does not grant us all the security of being given frames.  
   
    While walking through airports or train or bus stations, there are people there that have been affected by globalization and increased access to information.  The United State is seen as the land of opportunity and the destination of refugees and exiled persons from around the world.  From what I have seen, the people who are already have forgotten or choose to ignore how they themselves have gotten here and the struggles that their ancestors experienced.  I think it is necessary as a citizen of this country that I adopt a new mentality towards those who cannot speak for themselves, those stuck at the customs desks, so close to having something they have not had, a place that accepts them as humans, and not vagabonds.  After all, America is a major of proponent of globalization and has a great influence on the disenfranchised of this planet.  By the simple act of humanitarian consideration for those who are different and come from foreign places, we are able to objectively listen; giving voices to those who have been muted but have the a lot and sometimes more to share.