Happy National Petroleum Day.
Was this designed before or after fracking, I wonder?
There was a geopolitical benefit to fracking: it reduced US dependence on Middle Eastern crude, which today…
Is probably a win the US will take, right? Even with all the negatives concerning fracking, particularly because it feels like the US is mostly losing at most everything else these days. At least, that’s the vibe I get living in a largely German household a stone’s throw from Ontario, which is threatening to turn off our electricity right now.
So what do I map to celebrate petroleum? There are so many options!
I could have made a map of oil fields in the US; or petroleum yields by county and state; or oil-tanker train explosions in rural Minnesota and Wisconsin towns; or average American household annual petroleum consumption; or profit margins of US petroleum companies this past year; or all the wars the US has instigated (and mostly lost or, at best, muddled) dealing with the control of oil… The idea list was extensive.
But then I recalled something that happened six months ago. And I knew this map was already done.
Six months or so ago, I was in my workspace admiring some Soviet propaganda maps I had just put up. I had received them from my former colleague at UW-La Crosse, Ryan. He lived in the US Embassy in Moscow in the early and mid-1980s as a kid, because his dad worked there at the time. (Yeah, if I were a betting man, I’d put money on his dad being CIA too, but Ryan said he honestly has no idea.)
Anyway, while living in Moscow, Ryan saw these awesome anti-American posters for sale in the markets. So he bought a bunch of them for like 10 or 20 cents each when he was a kid, because he thought they were wicked cool. He told me he hung them up in his embassy bedroom. Alas, when he left for another job in Hawaii from UW-La Crosse, he gifted me these posters because he knew I studied propaganda maps, etc. Ryan, thanks again. I’m very grateful!
Below is one of my personal favorite Soviet posters.
For those that aren’t up on 1980s geopolitics, it’s Ronald Reagan in a cowboy hat with fingertips shaped like missiles attempting to claw at Guatemala. A great big strong worker’s hand and forearm reaches down and grabs Ronnie’s wrist.
I just LOVE this map! I wanted to put it up in our house, but the German contingent outvoted me, so it is in the garage above the workbench.
Which is why… the week the “very short” Iran war began, I was zoning out after making one of these daily maps in my shop. As I stared at the drills and saws on my workbench, I glanced up at this poster. And just like that… my brain made the cognitive connection:
Central America is essentially shaped like the Persian Gulf.
Bang! That was it. I woke up fast! Grabbed my phone…
What if…?! Would it?! Could it?!
I snapped a picture of the Soviet map, opened ChatGPT on the device, and asked it to create a propaganda poster very similar to the one in the picture, but not copying it exactly, because there is still copyright on old Soviet artwork made by the people somehow… but to copy the spirt and overall style… shifting it to the Persian Gulf, replacing Reagan with Pete Hegseth, because I assumed Sam Altman wouldn’t want to tick the President off by letting anyone disparage him, and eventually I asked it to change the color to a more symbolically relevant Islamic-green than the blue on the original map.
The first stab was good. But then… I decided to try and replace Hegseth with another president. And this is what I wound up with.
I was never planning on sharing it, because well, I didn’t really want to feel the wrath of pro-war or pro-Trump Americans. Nor do I want people thinking I side with Iran. (I take no sides in this conflict.)
Where I live, I’m surrounded by what can, at best, be described as fervently pro-Trump neighbors. I get along with my neighbors; I have no reason to stir the pot with political imagery.
But I really enjoy this map for its satirical and rhetorical value. By jove, the Soviets knew visual rhetoric; they wore it well.
Since the US is ridiculous enough to have a National Petroleum Day, I figured it’s a good time to show how well ChatGPT can be prompted to design fairly decent spin-off propaganda maps for satirical purposes. In other words: why sit on this gem any longer?!
Some people say propaganda maps are unethical. I disagree. The best are satirical and political-cartoonish. They don’t hide behind half-truths. Their overt bias is refreshing and, I imagine but I haven’t seen any science backing this up, may actually make people trust the message more. Just like people that swear are more trustworthy; I feel as though propaganda maps don’t commit the sin of omission. They don’t hide what they are, and that makes them downright refreshing.
So that’s what today’s map is. It uses a historical propaganda piece to summarize the Iran War today, on National Petroleum Day. And there you have it… today’s map, made six months ago, and inspired by a map that came out in 1982 from Leningrad Publishing House #17.
Happy National Petroleum Day, USA!
Note: hands are not drawn to scale.
Original ChatGPT Prompt (with an attached Soviet Poster photo)