Does Wyoming Exist?

  The first unit of my humanities class "Forbidden Books" focused on censorship, what it is, who enforces it, and whether it is right or wrong. The book we read for this unit is called Fahrenheit 451 by the author Ray Bradbury. This book is set in a futuristic dystopian world in which books were forbidden. This book talks about censorship and what it can do to humanity. The book was banned by request of parents because of its profanity, talk of drugs, abortion, suicide, and murder. We also learned about the Socratic Method. This method is a type of dialogue that Socrates would use when trying to convince someone of something, or at least help them to think deeper on the topic by using questions to get to a more specific answer. It was partly because of this method that Socrates was put to death. He made the people in his community with their way he would make them think about things. During his trial he used his method and that was one of the resources that was used as an example or inspiration for this project. 

 My action project for this unit is based around the Socratic Method. I partnered with one of my classmates (Click here for her blog) and we decided to take a deeper look into a theory that has become more and more popular in the younger generation. The question that we chose to research and base our project is “Does Wyoming actually exist?”, but more on that later. Please enjoy the video below.

Script: 

Open on text conversation between Kaylie and Maggie 

Maggie(Text): Hey Kaylie do you have any ski gear? I'm going skiing in Wyoming this weekend and I don’t think I have the right gear. 

 Kaylie(Text): r u kidding 

Maggie(Text): No?? I know pandemic precautions and whatever it’ll be fine 

Kaylie(Text): dude you can’t go to Wyoming 

Maggie(text): it’ll be fine 

Switch to camera 

Kaylie dials Maggie 

*ring ring* 

Maggie answers the phone 

Maggie: Hey bro Why did you call me? 

 Kaylie: You said you’re going to Wyoming? 

 Maggie: Yeah, why? 

Kaylie: You know you can’t, right? 

Maggie: I mean I know that we have to be careful about covid but we’re driving instead of taking a plane and we’ll have masks on wherever we go. 

Kaylie: No dude. You can’t go to Wyoming. 

Maggie: Why? 

Kaylie: You’re joking, right? Has no one ever told you? Have you not yet been enlightened? 

Maggie: Um, what do you mean? Told me what? Why are you talking like that? 

Kaylie: Don’t you know *slight pause* Wyoming doesn’t exist? 

Maggie: Dude I think your WiFi is messing up or something, you’re going to have to say that again. 

Kaylie: Wyoming does not exist. I think you heard me correctly. 

Maggie: Uh are you ok? Is this another joke? You got me good with the soap and the chickens last time but I’m not falling for the drain pipe rocking chair thing again. 

Kaylie: No, this is not a joke. *says quietly* This is serious. 

Maggie: Um, ok I’ll try and take you seriously but you’re going to have to explain. 

Kaylie: Let’s start with the basics. Have you ever been to Wyoming? 

Maggie: No 

Kaylie: Do you know anyone who says they have been to Wyoming? Or anyone who says they live there? 

Maggie: Yes, my grandma told me about her trip there a couple of years ago. She went there. 

Kaylie: Or so she says Maggie: Is this something you made up? Do you have any real evidence, other than just questions? 

Kaylie: I do have real evidence AND there are over 25,000 others around the world who believe this truth. 

Maggie: Ok so what is your evidence? Aren’t there people who live there? I know that they have a state government, are they just in charge of nothing? I mean how am I supposed to believe you, you mess with me all the time. 

Kaylie: Who would you trust? 

Maggie: I’m not sure. Maybe someone who lives there? 

Kaylie: Well, State Representative Dan Zwonitzer of Wyoming said it’s “a government conspiracy. I’m in a bunker outside the D.C. area”. He’s a member of the state government, and earlier you asked specifically about that. Does he have any reason to lie about his state not existing? 

Maggie: Well that’s sort of convincing. And I guess he would have no reason to lie, but there is still a lot of evidence proving that it does exist. There is a whole wikipedia page on it and I know it's not the most reliable but there are a lot of other sources. If Wyoming doesn’t exist like you say, where do people go when they say they went there, and what about all the people who live there? What is there if it’s not Wyoming? 

Kaylie: There are a couple different theories but the two most popular ones are one from the TV segment “It Must Be True”, that there’s no state there at all 

Maggie: Well that’s ridiculous 

Kaylie: Let me finish! Or, that the borders are just different, and it’s actually North Colorado. This theory is even supported by multiple college students who used to think they “lived in Wyoming”. Now they believe they live in North Colorado. Do you trust the accounts of people who are from Wyoming? 

Maggie: Well, I guess they would know… 

Kaylie: Now with all this information do you feel confident in the theory that Wyoming still exists? 

Maggie: Now that I think with an open mind, you actually do have a pretty convincing argument. I think this is something that I will have to spend more time and research on, but I think that I believe you. I’m gonna go talk to my family and let them know. 

Kaylie: I’m glad you came to your senses, talk later, bye! 

Maggie: Bye!

The purpose of this project was to find a topic - usually a question - that starts out broad but then using questions to come to a more specific answer. As you can see my partner and I looked at the theory that Wyoming does not exist. This may seem like it has an obvious answer and that this whole project is silly, but we live in a world where people are questioning all kinds of things, logical or not. The goal of this project was to take a look at one of these conspiracy theories and try and perceive it as something that could be logical. When thinking about censorship and how it can tie into this project, I think the answer is obvious. We have created a society that dismisses anything that does not align with our own opinion. This dismissive behavior can be applied to anything in the form of censorship. If someone doesn’t like something enough they can censor it so that other people don't look at it. 

The question at hand would definitely be dismissed by many people but MD and I wanted to see if we could make sense of it. I hope you enjoyed our project and it pushes you to think deeper on what might be simple topics.