Motus Mentis

10 Comments

1. Jimmy Stewart says

   That is horrifying.

   Posted January 9, 2020 at 1:19 am | Permalink
2. c matt says

   To be fair, it depends upon how the “map” was presented – were there borders for individual countries? Was it just a “Google Earth” type picture which makes it hard to discern? I would give a pass to folks who hit close by areas such as Iraq and Syria. Of course, no excuse to be any farther off than that (England and Spain is ridiculous).

   Posted January 9, 2020 at 11:39 am | Permalink
3. JK says

   Because of the clustering nearish the centers of the various states c matt I’m figuring it likely borders were shown.

   Of course the denoting in the Arabian, the Black, the Caspian, and the Med would seem to argue against.

   I suppose the media’s describing a maritime chokepoint (Hormuz) being associated in the news not infrequently might argue against borders being shown.

   Still that’s damn pitiful.

   Posted January 9, 2020 at 1:12 pm | Permalink
4. Malcolm says

   c,

   I’d imagine it was the same map used in the article, just with the labels switched off.

   Either way, the discrepancy remains.

   Posted January 9, 2020 at 1:19 pm | Permalink
5. Jason says

   As they say, it’s funny because it’s true. In stephen King’s The Shining Jack Torrence has to make a collect call at a drug store, leaving his little Danny in the VW. What does the latter do to keep himself busy? Look at state maps from the glove compartment and trace his finger along them.

   Posted January 9, 2020 at 4:33 pm | Permalink
6. JMSmith says

   We should bear in mind that some non-trivial number of Americans could not find the United States on a map. As a geography professor, I should be shocked by this, but being a geography professor also makes it old news. In fact, I’m perfectly happy to grant that there are plenty of good and decent people who can’t read maps and know next to nothing about geography. The problem arises when democracy forces these people to form geopolitical opinions. It’s not that we have a democracy full of fools, but that democracy forces us to be foolish by requiring us to form opinions about matters we really don’t understand. It’s fortunate that democracy doesn’t ask me to form an opinion about the conundrums in physics that you described in a recent post. Imagine some pollster shoving a microphone in your face and asking for your opinion of the anthropic principle or quantum mechanics!

   Posted January 10, 2020 at 8:02 am | Permalink
7. JK says

   I don’t think JMSmith the “real point” of this post has much to do with everyday people needing, necessarily, more knowledge of geography than it takes to get to the post office.

   More to the point are people whose job descriptions would seem to make such knowledge more important.

   https://www.wsj.com/articles/john-kerry-meets-with-saudi-king-abdullah-1403888673

   [Mr. Kerry said.] Like Saudi King Abdullah’s mother and some of the king’s wives, Mr. Jarba is a member of the Shammar tribe, whose ranks sprawl across the adjoining borders of Syria, Iraq and Saudi Arabia.

   Whither Jordan?

   Posted January 10, 2020 at 9:36 am | Permalink
8. JK says

   JMSmith,

   The above link I provided wasn’t, precisely the evidence addressing the ‘lack of geographic awareness’ I had in mind when I was seeking to illustrate (I was preparing to attend a funeral)

   Here’s the specific example I had in mind:

   SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: “Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria.”

   https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/09/10/background-conference-call-presidents-address-nation#.VBH-xrMzc7I.twitter

   Posted January 10, 2020 at 4:00 pm | Permalink
9. Malcolm says

   Professor Smith,

   It’s not that we have a democracy full of fools…

   No, but certainly not empty of them, either, and we hardly seem eager to winnow them out.

   Mencken:

   It remains impossible, as it was in the eighteenth century, to separate the democratic idea from the theory that there is a mystical merit, an esoteric and ineradicable rectitude, in the man at the bottom of the scale — that inferiority, by some strange magic, becomes a sort of superiority — nay, the superiority of superiorities. Everywhere on earth, save where the enlightenment of the modern age is confessedly in transient eclipse, the movement is toward the completer and more enamoured enfranchisement of the lower orders. Down there, one hears, lies a deep, illimitable reservoir of righteousness and wisdom, unpolluted by the corruption of privilege. What baffles statesmen is to be solved by the people, instantly and by a sort of seraphic intuition. Their yearnings are pure; they alone are capable of a perfect patriotism; in them is the only hope of peace and happiness on this lugubrious ball. The cure for the evils of democracy is more democracy!

   Posted January 10, 2020 at 11:19 pm | Permalink
10. JMSmith says

    JK @ I’m afraid my own profession bears some responsibility for this, since few geography courses nowadays teach where countries (rivers, mountains, cities, oceans, etc.) are located. My department no longer requires geography majors to take regional courses, and it was touch and go whether I could keep world regional geography on the degree plan.

    Malcolm @ Like almost everything Mencken wrote, that’s pretty good. That exaltation of the common man is the root of the problem because everyone ends up looking like a fool when his ignorance and folly is exposed. Of course, if the common man was as virtuous as the myth says he is, he would have the modesty to admit that he is not competent to decide such questions. But when he goes ahead and decides such questions, he exposed himself as the vain coxcomb that he really is.

    Posted January 12, 2020 at 7:34 am | Permalink