Detail of Olaus Magnus’s 1539 Carta Marina showing ships surrounded by enormous imagined sea creatures in uncharted northern waters.

Here Be Lions

Mapmakers once filled unknown regions with lions and monsters. The phrase hic sunt leones did not appear everywhere, but the instinct did. Where knowledge ended, imagination supplied danger. We still do this. We draw lions around people we do not know, histories we avoid, and futures we cannot control. Political leaders exploit that instinct. They…