West Wing - Why are we changing maps?

From season 2 - episode 16 "Somebody's Going to Emergency, Somebody's Going to Jail"

It's "Big Block of Cheese" Day, which means that Leo sends grumbling staffers to meet with organizations who are not usually heard from at the White House. C.J.'s assignment is the Cartographers for Social Equality.

[ CJ ] Hi. I'm sorry. Sorry to be late.

[ Dr. Fallow ] Oh, not a problem. [ CJ ] I'm CJ Cregg.

[ Fallow ] Course you are. I'm Dr. John Fallow. This is Dr. Cynthia Sayles and Professor Donald Huke.

[ CJ ] Huke? [Huke] Huke.

[ CJ ] Okay, and you are the Organization of Cartographers for Social Equality.

[ Fallow ] Well, we're from the OCFSE. We have many members. [ CJ ] How many?

[ Fallow ] 4,300. Dues paying members.

[ CJ ] What are the dues? [ Fallow ] $20 a year for the newsletter.

[ CJ ] Let's start.

[ Josh ] Wait, I want to see this.

[ CJ ] This is Josh Lyman

[ Fallow ] Indeed you are.

[ CJ ] Josh, this is Dr. Fallow and his merry men.

[ Fallow ] Yes. [Laughter]

[ CJ ] Should we begin?

[ Fallow ] Yes. Plain and simple, we'd like President Bartlet to aggressively support legislation that would make it mandatory

for every public school in America to teach geography using the Peters Projection map instead of the traditional Mercator.

[ Josh ] Give me 200 bucks and it's done.

[ Huke ] Really? [ CJ ] No. Why are we changing maps?

[ Sayles ] Because, CJ, the Mercator Projection has fostered European imperialist attitudes for centuries

and created an ethnic bias against the third world.
[ CJ ] Really?

[ Fallow ] The German cartographer, Mercator, originally designed this map in 1659 as a navigational tool for European sailors.

[ Huke ] The map enlarges areas at the poles to create straight lines of constant bearing or geographic direction.

[ Sayles ] So it makes it easier to cross an ocean.

[ Fallow ] But it distorts the relative size of nations and continents.

[ CJ ] Are you saying the map is wrong?

[ Fallow ] Oh dear, yes. Look at Greenland.

[ CJ ] Okay. [ Fallow ] Now, look at Africa.
[ CJ ] Okay.

[ Fallow ] The two land masses appear to be roughly the same size. [ CJ ] Yes.

[ Fallow ] Would it blow your mind if I told you the Africa was in reality 14 times larger?

[ CJ ] Yes!

[ 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.

[ Hukes ] Alaska appears three times as large as Mexico when Mexico is larger by 0.1 million square miles.

[ Sayles ] Germany appears in the middle of the map when it's in the Northern most quarter of the Earth.

Wait, wait. Relative size is one thing but you're telling me that Germany isn't where we think it is.

Nothing's where you think it is.

Where is it?

I'm glad you asked.

The Peters Projection.

[ Sayles ] It has fidelity of axis.

[ Huke ] Fidelity of position.

[ Sayles ] East-West lines are parallel and intersect North-South axes at right angles.

What the hell is that?

It's where you've been living this whole time. Should we continue?

[ Josh ] Uh huh.

[ Huke ] So, you're probably wondering what all this has to do with social equality.

No, I'm wondering where France really is.

[ Josh ] Guys, we want to thank you very much for coming in -

[ CJ ] Hang on. We're going to finish this.

What do maps have to do with social equality, you ask?

She asked.

Salvatore Natoli of the National Council for Social Studies argues, in our society we unconsciously equate size with importance and even power.

[ Josh ] I'm gonna check in on Tommy.

[ CJ ] Go.

[ Josh ] These guys find Brigadoon on that map, you'll call me, right?

[ CJ ] Probably not.

[ Josh ] Ok

[ Fallow ] When third world countries are misrepresented, they're likely to be valued less.

When Mercador maps exaggerate the importance of Western civilization,

when the top of the map is given to the Northern hemisphere and the bottom is given to the Southern,

then people will tend to adopt top and bottom attitudes.

[ CJ ] But, wait - where else could you put the Northern hemisphere but on the top?

[ Sayles ] On the bottom.

[ CJ ] How?

[ Fallow ] Like this.

[ CJ ] Yeah, but you can't do that.

[ Fallow ] Why not?

[ CJ ] Because it's freaking me out.