The function of the Mercator map was to enable safe sailing and trade By stretching the poles, you can draw a line between any two points (any two sea ports) and the angle with respect to north will be constant This was called a rhumb line: it’s longer than the shortest line that travels a globe, but you can calculate it very easy This was very useful when it was extremely hard to calculate longitude and ships often got lost. With the Mercator projection, you can just calculate your rhumb line and, even if you get blown off course, you know roughly what angle to be traveling in, so you can find your way This is long outdated technology, but it was extremely important in its day. The new “Equal-area Projection” serves no such practical purpose. It exists to soothe neurotic liberals who are upset that Africa isn’t large enough on Mercator and that this distortion is harmful to Africa Its adoption reflects an affluent society where the underlying purpose of things is forgotten and the only function left is for objects to be symbols that signal belief (liberal beliefs)