1 00:00:05,074 --> 00:00:08,214 [ CJ ] Hi. I'm sorry. Sorry to be late. 2 00:00:08,214 --> 00:00:10,036 [ Dr. Fallow ] Oh, not a problem. [ CJ ] I'm CJ Cregg. 3 00:00:10,036 --> 00:00:15,893 [ Fallow ] Course you are. I'm Dr. John Fallow. This is Dr. Cynthia Sayles and Professor Donald Huke. 4 00:00:15,893 --> 00:00:17,824 [ CJ ] Huke? [Huke] Huke. 5 00:00:17,824 --> 00:00:21,489 [ CJ ] Okay, and you are the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality. 6 00:00:21,489 --> 00:00:24,017 [ Fallow ] Well, we're from the OCFSE. We have many members. [ CJ ] How many? 7 00:00:24,017 --> 00:00:26,217 [ Fallow ] 4,300. Dues paying members. 8 00:00:26,217 --> 00:00:29,371 [ CJ ] What are the dues? [ Fallow ] $20 a year for the newsletter. 9 00:00:29,371 --> 00:00:30,293 [ CJ ] Let's start. 10 00:00:30,293 --> 00:00:32,408 [ Josh ] Wait, I want to see this. 11 00:00:32,408 --> 00:00:34,906 [ CJ ] This is Josh Lyman 12 00:00:34,906 --> 00:00:36,009 [ Fallow ] Indeed you are. 13 00:00:36,009 --> 00:00:38,221 [ CJ ] Josh, this is Dr. Fallow and his merry men. 14 00:00:38,221 --> 00:00:40,246 [ Fallow ] Yes. [Laughter] 15 00:00:40,246 --> 00:00:41,409 [ CJ ] Should we begin? 16 00:00:41,409 --> 00:00:49,213 [ Fallow ] Yes. Plain and simple, we'd like President Bartlet to aggressively support legislation that would make it mandatory 17 00:00:49,213 --> 00:00:55,615 for every public school in America to teach geography using the Peters Projection map instead of the traditional Mercator. 18 00:00:55,615 --> 00:00:57,329 [ Josh ] Give me 200 bucks and it's done. 19 00:00:57,329 --> 00:01:01,096 [ Huke ] Really? [ CJ ] No. Why are we changing maps? 20 00:01:01,096 --> 00:01:05,999 [ Sayles ] Because, CJ, the Mercator Projection has fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries 21 00:01:05,999 --> 00:01:09,833 and created an ethnic bias against the third world. [ CJ ] Really? 22 00:01:09,833 --> 00:01:17,133 [ Fallow ] The German cartographer, Mercator, originally designed this map in 1659 as a navigational tool for European sailors. 23 00:01:17,133 --> 00:01:22,337 [ Huke ] The map enlarges areas at the poles to create straight lines of constant bearing or geographic direction. 24 00:01:22,337 --> 00:01:24,418 [ Sayles ] So it makes it easier to cross an ocean. 25 00:01:24,418 --> 00:01:28,580 [ Fallow ] But it distorts the relative size of nations and continents. 26 00:01:28,580 --> 00:01:30,943 [ CJ ] Are you saying the map is wrong? 27 00:01:30,974 --> 00:01:34,330 [ Fallow ] Oh dear, yes. Look at Greenland. 28 00:01:34,330 --> 00:01:38,076 [ CJ ] Okay. [ Fallow ] Now, look at Africa. [ CJ ] Okay. 29 00:01:38,076 --> 00:01:41,384 [ Fallow ] The two land masses appear to be roughly the same size. [ CJ ] Yes. 30 00:01:41,384 --> 00:01:46,383 [ Fallow ] Would it blow your mind if I told you the Africa was in reality 14 times larger? 31 00:01:46,383 --> 00:01:47,598 [ CJ ] Yes! 32 00:01:48,244 --> 00:01:57,417 [ Sayles ] Here, we have Europe drawn considerably larger than South America when at 16.9 million square miles, South America is almost double the size of Europe's 3.8 million. 33 00:01:57,417 --> 00:02:03,448 [ Hukes ] Alaska appears three times as large as Mexico when Mexico is larger by 0.1 million square miles. 34 00:02:03,448 --> 00:02:06,581 [ Sayles ] Germany appears in the middle of the map when it's in the Northern most quarter of the Earth. 35 00:02:06,581 --> 00:02:11,489 Wait, wait. Relative size is one thing but you're telling me that Germany isn't where we think it is. 36 00:02:11,489 --> 00:02:13,254 Nothing's where you think it is. 37 00:02:13,254 --> 00:02:14,783 Where is it? 38 00:02:14,783 --> 00:02:16,866 I'm glad you asked. 39 00:02:18,328 --> 00:02:21,298 The Peters Projection. 40 00:02:21,652 --> 00:02:23,450 [ Sayles ] It has fidelity of axis. 41 00:02:23,450 --> 00:02:25,244 [ Huke ] Fidelity of position. 42 00:02:25,244 --> 00:02:29,201 [ Sayles ] East-West lines are parallel and intersect North-South axes at right angles. 43 00:02:29,201 --> 00:02:30,768 What the hell is that? 44 00:02:30,768 --> 00:02:34,864 It's where you've been living this whole time. Should we continue? 45 00:02:34,864 --> 00:02:35,480 [ Josh ] Uh huh. 46 00:02:42,420 --> 00:02:47,057 [ Huke ] So, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with social equality. 47 00:02:47,057 --> 00:02:49,859 No, I'm wondering where France really is. 48 00:02:49,859 --> 00:02:52,257 [ Josh ] Guys, we want to thank you very much for coming in - 49 00:02:52,257 --> 00:02:55,008 [ CJ ] Hang on. We're going to finish this. 50 00:02:55,008 --> 00:02:57,174 What do maps have to do with social equality, you ask? 51 00:02:57,174 --> 00:02:58,610 She asked. 52 00:02:58,610 --> 00:03:06,062 Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for Social Studies argues, in our society we unconsciously equate size with importance and even power. 53 00:03:10,477 --> 00:03:12,266 [ Josh ] I'm gonna check in on Tommy. 54 00:03:12,266 --> 00:03:13,066 [ CJ ] Go. 55 00:03:13,620 --> 00:03:16,015 [ Josh ] These guys find Brigadoon on that map, you'll call me, right? 56 00:03:16,015 --> 00:03:16,918 [ CJ ] Probably not. 57 00:03:16,918 --> 00:03:17,836 [ Josh ] Ok 58 00:03:17,836 --> 00:03:22,998 [ Fallow ] When third world countries are misrepresented, they're likely to be valued less. 59 00:03:22,998 --> 00:03:25,581 When Mercador maps exaggerate the importance of Western civilization, 60 00:03:25,581 --> 00:03:30,396 when the top of the map is given to the Northern hemisphere and the bottom is given to the Southern, 61 00:03:30,396 --> 00:03:35,089 then people will tend to adopt top and bottom attitudes. 62 00:03:35,089 --> 00:03:39,886 [ CJ ] But, wait - where else could you put the Northern hemisphere but on the top? 63 00:03:39,886 --> 00:03:41,009 [ Sayles ] On the bottom. 64 00:03:41,009 --> 00:03:41,805 [ CJ ] How? 65 00:03:41,805 --> 00:03:43,018 [ Fallow ] Like this. 66 00:03:44,372 --> 00:03:45,958 [ CJ ] Yeah, but you can't do that. 67 00:03:45,958 --> 00:03:46,936 [ Fallow ] Why not? 68 00:03:46,936 --> 00:03:48,800 [ CJ ] Because it's freaking me out.