Mappenstance.

As I grow older, my awareness of my own values and how they compare to other people’s has become much more acute. In my mind, it is crucial that citizens are aware of their own values, but also of the values around them. And, it is therefore even more crucial that we have resources to educate us about the values around us. Maps are particularly helpful resources for this. The American Values Atlas (AVA), created by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) in 2014, uses a simple yet interactive map of the United States to show the distribution of values in the United States. On a familiar projection of the continental United States, the AVA displays survey results on political and social attitudes by year, from each state, region, and 30 metropolitan areas. This interactive map is a tool for representing and tracking the intricacies and changes in attitudes in our society. Furthermore, the AVA is a live map—it changes annually. To ensure the map shows an accurate study of America’s political and cultural climate from year to year, the PRRI annually samples 50,000 random Americans. To activate the map, you select a topic from the sidebar and a question to explore. Then, you click on any state, region, or city to compare results.

It is imperative that people track diversity in a society with increasingly diverse attitudes, biases, and beliefs, so that they are aware of how many perspectives there are and know why different people react differently to politics. The American Values Atlas makes this possible.  It is a portrayal of modern, meaningful relationships in American society, while also a guide to tracking the changes in those relationships. For instance, the map shows that in 2015, 25 percent of Mississippi respondents favored same-sex marriage.  And, in 2016, 37 percent of Mississippi respondents favored same-sex marriage. That is a fairly abrupt change. And shows that, even in the state most reluctant to accept the idea of same-sex marriage, people’s values are changing. Further, the data of the map details America for what it is: a dynamic encounter of cultures, religions, and political ideologies. Yet, the view of an isolated United States projects the message that we are all Americans. The map says, “Look, these are the states, these are the people who make up the states, look at all this difference, yet we are the United States of America.” It identifies the diversity, and solidifies debate as American.

Moreover, the map shows the views on immigration, religion, and a variety of social issues associated with different geographic regions. Americans want to understand the demographics of their state. They want to know where their state sits on the political spectrum. And they want to know what direction their state is headed. For someone foreign to the United States, this map shows the distribution of demographics and ideologies throughout the nation. The map’s interactivity gives it an advantage over non-interactive maps because it allows the user to select the information they need to see and suppress the information they don’t need to see. In other words, the map can contain a lot of information while not showing it all at once. Because the map is digital, the authors can update it whenever they need to without having to create an entirely new map.

What this map fails to show, however, is each state’s population. Especially with the context of the map, one would think that the creators would offer each state’s population as a context for comparisons between states. This failure fosters a perception bias that the relative size of the state is more significant than the relative population. But, in truth, the population, and the demographics, are far more significant factors to be concerned with than the spatial projection. My home state of Iowa, for instance, appears equal in size, if not slightly bigger, than New York, which may be true spatially, but, what the map fails to convey is that New York has nearly seven times as many people than Iowa, and therefore carries greater influence.

I chose this map because of my interest in American politics and social issues, more specifically, social discrimination. This map showed me something I knew, but with greater precision: in the United States today, there is a profoundly deceitful claim that social discrimination does not exist in our American society. For example, if you look at each state’s response to the question, “Just your impression, in the United States today, is there a lot of discrimination against blacks, or not?”, (which can be found under the sidebar topic “discrimination”) it is evident that a substantial number of Americans are unaware of the social discrimination in American society. But, the survey question is ambiguous, it asks people to measure “a lot” but, as the map shows, “a lot” is measured differently by different people. The map also fails to represent indicators of social inequality in each state, which can lead people to assume that the factors perpetuating social discrimination are consistent across the nation. Yes, social discrimination in the United States has improved in the past 100 years; still, the extent to which our improvements have met our generation’s cries is unsatisfactory.

Values make us human. And it’s important to remember that the contrasts between our values do not have to separate us, but can bring us together in a society that fosters independent growth, and encourages new perspectives. We, the United States, need to do a better job to ensure that our society lives up to the values we proclaim to hold. The American Values Atlas, although lacking a few specifications, delivers what it is intended to deliver: insight into the distribution of values in America. And, in doing so, it reminds us that the United States still has a lot of work to do before we can identify social equity as a common value of American society.

This week’s blog website is Galaxy Map, which contains of course maps of the galaxy! This site contains two types of maps: a Milky Way Explorer from Google maps interface that shows what our galaxy would look like through infrared, microwave, and radio frequencies, and a face-on set of maps that displays the galaxy from an interstellar spaceship. There are three types of face-on maps: a full-detail map, the Milky Way Explore, that could be zoomed in and out, an overview map which shows most of the objects on the main galaxy map, and many detail maps that show the galaxy map objects in twenty two locations.

If you want to learn more about our galaxy, check out this blog!

Blog link: http://galaxymap.org/

This map depicts what one map maker visualized the world looking like after the conclusion of World War Two.  Maurice Gomberg hailed from Philadelphia, PA, “The City of Brotherly Love.”  Him being an American puts a political spin on his projection because chances are he wanted to win the war, so any land that he gave or took away from varying countries on the map would coincide with the Allied forces, of which America was a member of.  The map shows what countries would expand their territories after the war from the lost land of the losing countries i.e. the Axis Powers.  The Axis powers were labeled as “quarantined states” and are outlined in a thick black border and were fostered into the neighboring territories.  Other than borders and newfoundland, some details were given showing the Burma Road the Ural Mountains to expand the power of the Allies.  They were significant functions during the war.  Given the title, the map was created to show a “New World”, one without conflict or violence because the enemy would’ve been defeated in it’s entirety.  “New World” gives way to the conspiracy theory of “The New World Order” which is a theory that all of the world reign would eventually come through one all powerful totalitarian government.  In extinguishing its enemies and giving more power to already powerful countries, the name seems to fit.

During the presentation, we had asked a few questions that the class had answered.

Q: Why is it odd an American made a post war map prior to 1942?

A: America wasn’t directly involved in the war yet because this map was created before the attacks on Pearl Harbor which ultimately drew the US into the war, but this map was still produced as propaganda and foreshadowed which side the US would enter into upon entering the war.  This showed an idea of what the world would look like compare to what it actually looked like at the time creating a difference between ideology and reality.

Q: How would you identify national identity and American power?

A: Looking at the map title, you can see who in the world is being regarded as a leading power in the New World Order of which the US was spearheading.  Also, when looking a the map, the US has military outreach in the Pacific Ocean and serves as protection of those territories.

The class showed interest and input and came out with the same responses to the questions that we had originally predispositioned.

Team Members: Rong Bao & Noah Yuro

Instructor: Dr. Barney

The Netflix series Narcos, which I have recently finished, is based on the cocaine dealers of Colombia, specifically Pablo Escobar and the Cali cartel, and shows both how they were caught, but also how they were able to make huge profits and get many countries, specifically the US, hooked on cocaine in the 1980s. The transportation of goods like cocaine to the US is very complicated and requires expert planning to be successful. Pablo Escobar and the Calí cartel were just the beginning of the trend of illicit trafficking that still exists in the world today. However, now it is expanded from cocaine to other drugs such as heroin, as well as the movement of illegal migrants and trafficking of women and children to different countries.  There are so many maps that have been made of the transportation and trade of legal goods and services throughout the world like sugar, wheat, or rum. However, the more secretive side of international trade, like illegal trafficking through black markets and smuggling routes gets much less recognition. This map not only shows the interesting relationship between developed and developing countries, it also reinforces stereotypes of the goods that are selected.

        There are several fascinating observations that can be made from this map. First off, almost all of the movement is going from a developing country in South America, Africa, or Southeast Asia, to a developed country, usually Europe, the US, or Australia. In regards to cocaine, it is almost all grown in South America in countries like Colombia (which is where it began with Escobar), Bolivia, and Peru and going to America, Europe and some of the larger countries in Africa like South Africa and Nigeria. Heroin, meanwhile, is mostly made in Southeast Asia and the Middle East, with a little bit in Central America, and is then transported to the more developed countries. This trend for the two drugs displays the politics of development, in that the countries that produce the goods are not necessarily the ones that are the most successful. In the developing countries, it is usually the case that a steep inequality develops between the people who supply these goods to the developed countries (Escobar was one of the richest men in the world when he was at his peak) and the rest of the country.

The illegal migrants follow a similar path, but one interesting thing about them is that they tend to not cross an ocean: they usually just move to the closest developed country without having to worry about going through airports to go across the Atlantic and Pacific. The women and children trafficking flows are a little bit different, as there is a large group of arrows originating in Russia and Eastern Europe, with less originating in South and Central America. This map may at first seem complicated with all of the arrows, but it shows a general trend in the transportation of illicitly trafficked goods.

        While this map seems simple at first, there is some criticism that I can apply to this map in regard to its selection of certain things. First off, the choice of what illegal trafficked goods to put on the map raises some questions. While these may be four of the biggest goods, they are certainly not the only goods that are smuggled. Others include wildlife, tobacco, and counterfeited goods. The creators of this map may have chosen the goods they chose because they are the most controversial ones, and so it would get more attention from the world. Also, the map creators decided to not include any specific places in the countries where the goods come from or went to. For example, the cocaine in Colombia just seems to come from the whole country, not any specific place, and goes to various non-specific parts of the US, not certain cities like LA, Miami, or New York. This makes observes of the map feel as though the entire country of Colombia is a drug-infested mess, when in fact it is certain people who are contributing to this stereotype. However, since these people are usually the richest and have a lot of power, they create a nationwide stereotype. This connects back to Dennis Wood’s idea that “cartography was primarily a form of political discourse concerned with the acquisition and maintenance of power” (Wood 43). Similarly, the decision to only show the goods going to countries and not cities creates a feeling that more goods are coming in because people get the idea that the goods are coming into the country as a whole and not to a specific city. This helps to emphasize the level of this problem without giving specific numbers about the amounts that come in.

While at first, like many maps, this map seems to not be written with any sort of message, it becomes clear that the creators of this map, which in this case is the US Government, want to stress the importance of illicit trafficking around the world. They use a bland color like grey for the countries, putting more of a focus on the goods trafficked then exactly where they are going. This map is straight-forward enough to where, after a little bit of analysis, people begin to understand the problems of illicit trafficking in the world and may want to see what they can do to help, which will benefit the US government. Ultimately, this map, like many others, both raises questions and present biases while displaying an important topic throughout the world.

Works Cited:

Wood, Denis. The Power of Maps. The Guilford Press, 1992

This week’s blog website is from Betsy Watson and Greg Miller of National Geographic. It contains a wide variety of maps, including different maps of the solar eclipse and a one-hundred year old map of Rome that still stands up today. It is not updated very often (only one or two a month), but the posts are very engaging with fascinating maps, which makes up for it.

Blog Link: http://www.nationalgeographic.com/people-and-culture/all-over-the-map/

This digital atlas on Harvard’s website contains details about ancient civilizations, especially the Roman Empire. It contains lots of details of the Roman Empire at its prime, including ports, military forts, and various transportation landmarks. While it may seem overwhelming and a little confusing at first, it does a great job of the vast area that the Roman Empire occupied and true scope of their power.

Atlas Link: http://ags.cga.harvard.edu/darmc/

The Post War-New World Map created by Maurice Gomberg in October 1941, but not published until 1942, provided the world with a new and intriguing prediction of the world would look once the dust from world war two settled. While Gomberg created the map as a personal project, it quickly became nationally recognized and was picked up by the Library of Congress.
The purpose of the map is to predict how the world will look after WW2, and to show how the organization of the new world differs from that of the old. Gomberg proposed a new world with 14 sovereign states– compared to the 63 at the time–13 of which would be democracies, 10 demilitarized, and 3 quarantined states–Japan, Italy and Germany (Axis powers). The USA, USSR, and British Commonwealth of Nations would be the three main powers and would act as the world police. Gomberg also included a list of 41 statements which state the New Moral Order after the war: create permanent peace, freedom, justice, security, and world reconstruction. Gomberg incorporated quotes from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms speech, which can be viewed as propaganda for the war efforts.
This map has a strong sense of American identity. In Gomberg’s proposal, the United States would gain all of Canada, Mexico, Central America and several smaller territories throughout the world. The new U.S. would span across the entire globe, thus demonstrating the US world dominance. This is similar to the British Empire of the early 1900’s, and the saying “the sun never sets on the British Empire”, could simply be changed to “the sun never sets on the Americans.
Gomberg was extremely delusional and unrealistic with his goals for the New World, and there are many potential complications that he didn’t account for. First, he didn’t anticipate the coming friction between USSR and USA political viewpoints. During the cold war, tensions were high between the two world powers. If Gomberg’s organization of the world had come to fruition, both the U.S. and U.S.S.R. would gain significant amounts of territory, making another global conflict inevitable. Also, he simply grouped entire continents together, without considering the repercussions of such a drastic action. This is similar to the partition of Africa in the late 1800’s. However, in this case the nations that Gomberg is attempting to group together have the means to mount a resistance against any invaders. Plus, it is very unlikely that after years of fighting, the allied powers would be willing to use their militaries for another campaign, just to reorganize the geographic landscape of continents that they don’t have any stake in.

-By Kim Kiess and Luke Salvati

Moriarty, Thomas. “The Post War II New World Order Map: A Proposal to Rearrange the World after and Allied Victory.” Global Research. Org. N.p., 12 June 2010. Web.