Glad to have you back on the treasure hunt for another Word Treasures post!
The words here were found in things I have read recently and focus on systems, power, and resistance.
We're all living in someone else's map, and most of us don't even know we're lost. These words are about recognizing the maps while learning to redraw them.
Hegemony (noun) - leadership or dominance, especially by one country or special group over others.
“It indoctrinates people, again and again, in accepting it’s hegemony and insight and wisdom, so that we judge ourselves instead of the system.” - Seth Godin 09/06/25 blog
Boondoggle (noun) - a project that is considered a waste of both time and money, yet is often continued due to extraneous policy or political motivations.
“This Gathering of Titans as they call themselves, is not your average entrepreneurial conference. It’s not a boondoggle.” - Start with Why, Simon Sinek
Mercator projection (noun) - a projection of a map of the world onto a cylinder in a waythat all the parallels of latitude have the same length as the equator, used especially for marine charts and certain climatological maps.
“Most people aren’t ‘lost’. They refuse to let go of the distorted Mercator map they were given.” - Dev Chengkalath
Polemical (adjective) - expressing or constituting a strongly critical attack on or a controversial opinion about someone or something.
“A new, and slightly polemical post on the dangers and fetishizing of AI, and some idea of a set of heuristics to reduce the potential harm.” - Dave Snowden