The Imperialist Map: Beyond Materialism and Idealism

Abstract

If the view from space failed to offer any real escape from earth-bound perspectives as far as superpower relations and ideology were concerned, the same might be said of its impact on a broader philosophical debate. A writer in the Soviet journal International Affairs greeted the launch of Sputnik as a reaffirmation of the correctness of Marxist materialism, refuting ‘idealistic theories that the world is “unknowable”, that the objective world does not exist but is only a product of the human consciousness.’³ Thus continued a debate as long as the history of Western philosophy itself. Materialist philosophy generally asserts that ultimate reality exists at the level of physical objects external to any human thought or understanding. Idealism counters that the pure actions of such objects upon the body can never be experienced because of the various ways either the sense organs or the understanding always shape or filter that which is perceived. Cultural cartographies cannot be reduced to either of these perspectives. In the socio-cultural sphere that we inhabit, reality is grounded only in the map-like grids of its own constructed landscape. On such a terrain it is impossible to make absolute distinctions between levels such as the base and superstructure of Marxist theory, however useful they might be as strategic tools in particular situations.

[…] I had a passion for maps. I would look for hours at South America, or Africa, or Australia, and lose myself in all the glories of exploration. At that time there were many blank spaces on the earth, and when I saw one that looked particularly inviting on a map (but they all look that) I would put my finger on it and say,When I grow up I will go there.

Joseph Conrad¹

The country was made without lines of demarcation, and it is no man’s business to divide it.

Chief Joseph, Nez Percé²