WEBVTT 00:00:05.074 --> 00:00:08.214 [ CJ ] Hi. I'm sorry. Sorry to be late. 00:00:08.214 --> 00:00:10.036 [ Dr. Fallow ] Oh, not a problem. [ CJ ] I'm CJ Cregg. 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. 00:00:15.893 --> 00:00:17.824 [ CJ ] Huke? [Huke] Huke. 00:00:17.824 --> 00:00:21.489 [ CJ ] Okay, and you are the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality. 00:00:21.489 --> 00:00:24.017 [ Fallow ] Well, we're from the OCFSE. We have many members. [ CJ ] How many? 00:00:24.017 --> 00:00:26.217 [ Fallow ] 4,300. Dues paying members. 00:00:26.217 --> 00:00:29.371 [ CJ ] What are the dues? [ Fallow ] $20 a year for the newsletter. 00:00:29.371 --> 00:00:30.293 [ CJ ] Let's start. 00:00:30.293 --> 00:00:32.408 [ Josh ] Wait, I want to see this. 00:00:32.408 --> 00:00:34.906 [ CJ ] This is Josh Lyman 00:00:34.906 --> 00:00:36.009 [ Fallow ] Indeed you are. 00:00:36.009 --> 00:00:38.221 [ CJ ] Josh, this is Dr. Fallow and his merry men. 00:00:38.221 --> 00:00:40.246 [ Fallow ] Yes. [Laughter] NOTE Paragraph 00:00:40.246 --> 00:00:41.409 [ CJ ] Should we begin? 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 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. 00:00:55.615 --> 00:00:57.329 [ Josh ] Give me 200 bucks and it's done. 00:00:57.329 --> 00:01:01.096 [ Huke ] Really? [ CJ ] No. Why are we changing maps? 00:01:01.096 --> 00:01:05.999 [ Sayles ] Because, CJ, the Mercator Projection has fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries 00:01:05.999 --> 00:01:09.833 and created an ethnic bias against the third world. [ CJ ] Really? 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. 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. 00:01:22.337 --> 00:01:24.418 [ Sayles ] So it makes it easier to cross an ocean. 00:01:24.418 --> 00:01:28.580 [ Fallow ] But it distorts the relative size of nations and continents. 00:01:28.580 --> 00:01:30.943 [ CJ ] Are you saying the map is wrong? 00:01:30.974 --> 00:01:34.330 [ Fallow ] Oh dear, yes. Look at Greenland. 00:01:34.330 --> 00:01:38.076 [ CJ ] Okay. [ Fallow ] Now, look at Africa. [ CJ ] Okay. 00:01:38.076 --> 00:01:41.384 [ Fallow ] The two land masses appear to be roughly the same size. [ CJ ] Yes. 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? 00:01:46.383 --> 00:01:47.598 [ CJ ] Yes! 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. 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. 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. 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. 00:02:11.489 --> 00:02:13.254 Nothing's where you think it is. 00:02:13.254 --> 00:02:14.783 Where is it? 00:02:14.783 --> 00:02:16.866 I'm glad you asked. 00:02:18.328 --> 00:02:21.298 The Peters Projection. 00:02:21.652 --> 00:02:23.450 [ Sayles ] It has fidelity of axis. 00:02:23.450 --> 00:02:25.244 [ Huke ] Fidelity of position. 00:02:25.244 --> 00:02:29.201 [ Sayles ] East-West lines are parallel and intersect North-South axes at right angles. 00:02:29.201 --> 00:02:30.768 What the hell is that? 00:02:30.768 --> 00:02:34.864 It's where you've been living this whole time. Should we continue? 00:02:34.864 --> 00:02:35.480 [ Josh ] Uh huh. 00:02:42.420 --> 00:02:47.057 [ Huke ] So, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with social equality. 00:02:47.057 --> 00:02:49.859 No, I'm wondering where France really is. 00:02:49.859 --> 00:02:52.257 [ Josh ] Guys, we want to thank you very much for coming in - 00:02:52.257 --> 00:02:55.008 [ CJ ] Hang on. We're going to finish this. 00:02:55.008 --> 00:02:57.174 What do maps have to do with social equality, you ask? 00:02:57.174 --> 00:02:58.610 She asked. 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. 00:03:10.477 --> 00:03:12.266 [ Josh ] I'm gonna check in on Tommy. 00:03:12.266 --> 00:03:13.066 [ CJ ] Go. 00:03:13.620 --> 00:03:16.015 [ Josh ] These guys find Brigadoon on that map, you'll call me, right? 00:03:16.015 --> 00:03:16.918 [ CJ ] Probably not. 00:03:16.918 --> 00:03:17.836 [ Josh ] Ok 00:03:17.836 --> 00:03:22.998 [ Fallow ] When third world countries are misrepresented, they're likely to be valued less. 00:03:22.998 --> 00:03:25.581 When Mercador maps exaggerate the importance of Western civilization, 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, 00:03:30.396 --> 00:03:35.089 then people will tend to adopt top and bottom attitudes. 00:03:35.089 --> 00:03:39.886 [ CJ ] But, wait - where else could you put the Northern hemisphere but on the top? 00:03:39.886 --> 00:03:41.009 [ Sayles ] On the bottom. 00:03:41.009 --> 00:03:41.805 [ CJ ] How? 00:03:41.805 --> 00:03:43.018 [ Fallow ] Like this. 00:03:44.372 --> 00:03:45.958 [ CJ ] Yeah, but you can't do that. 00:03:45.958 --> 00:03:46.936 [ Fallow ] Why not? 00:03:46.936 --> 00:03:48.800 [ CJ ] Because it's freaking me out.