Continents?

[Hadoblado]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZNSaePjenU

This came up on my feed. It's short and the author has a good pace so is easy to keep engaged by. (ENTP?)

He goes on a rant about how the term 'continent' doesn't actually have a consistent definition, and allows for it's utility as a means of learning geography, but ultimately concludes that an adult perspective that is trying to just be right has no need for continents as a concept.

Is there any reason he's wrong?

I've had this as a soft perspective for a long time. Not as an explicitly stated claim that 'continents' as a term holds no value, but that I'm yet to understand anything that it denotes as a descriptor that isn't better handled by some other category. This has been my understanding ever since I can remember, and I sort of just assumed I was yet to understand the difference; I've next to zero interest in geography and thus never checked. The author of the video actually provided a lot more evidence for the conclusion than I had thought of/knew, such as Antarctica being an archipelago and Africa being connected to Asia.

So err...
+ ENTP?
+ Is 'continent' as a category stupid?
+ Have you ever had an understanding that you held separate from your beliefs for an extended period of time under the assumption it would be proven wrong, only to be found right later? (drawback of apathy + tentativeness)

 

[onesteptwostep]

I don't understand how continents "leads to lifelong misunderstanding of reality".

If you want to be really technical about this, North and South America are cut by the Panama Canal, same with Asia and Africa by the Suez. If you're upset with the Europe and Asia divide use the term Eurasia.

Just because the media uses terminology that refers to ethnicity rather than geological location doesn't mean you have the go to card for being an unnecessary idiot.

The term continent isn't even a concept either, it's a categorization.

I can totally see this being added to the 'oh we are so ethnocentric!' stupidity hipsters ramble about.

 

[A_Scanner_Darkly]

+ Is 'continent' as a category stupid?

I don't find that taxonomies need to be strictly scientific in their foundations in order to be useful (e.g. MBTI and Enneagram).

In the case of continents, they were likely once useful in describing patterns in outward appearance, culture, language, history, etc. among the disparate sub-tribes of the greater human collective, though increasing globalization has gradually been fuzzing all that up.

+ Have you ever had an understanding that you held separate from your beliefs for an extended period of time under the assumption it would be proven wrong, only to be found right later? (drawback of apathy + tentativeness)

Perhaps, but I do have beliefs that I keep to myself because I know I will be ridiculed for them in the present, expecting them to be proven "right" (a dubious concept in itself, methinks) further down the temporal river.

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Continents exist as quite concrete zones of cultural, economic and geographical features.
Sometimes their borders are more discrete than others, for example the way Europe is separated from Asia by the Ural mountains may seem arbitrary, on the other hand considering the sheer difficulty of transit and moving from one zone of cultural influence to another, since ancient times often taking months and years to complete, it seems quite justified to view these two as separate entities.

He isn't wrong, but I don't think there's a single way to be right about this. I think viewing Europe Asia and Eurasia as their connection zone is more accurate, but that's because I have no need to use these categories for anything, it was never the way for me to think of a place as "Asian" or "European" that would put me into a biased mode of cognition. I can see this being a problem for others and maybe they shouldn't rely on such definitions in the first place.

+I could see that. But then again, this label is even more stupid than continents he tried to displace in his video.
+It's often times quite useless.
+Yes, my research and accuracy is to blame.

 

[Brontosaurie]

It's a bit like "seas" but slightly less dumb.

 

[Analyzer]

What about "countries"? I don't see any borders from space.

 

[Pyropyro]

Without countries and continents then we have to find other means to irrationally hate each other. Duh. :P

 

[onesteptwostep]

Speaking of irrational hatreds..


In Bizzaro world where China holds global hegemony:

"Hey American, go back to your America you imperialist yankee!"
"Which one, North or South?"
"Does it look like I care!?"

 

[Ex-User (9086)]

Speaking of irrational hatreds..


In Bizzaro world where China holds global hegemony:

"Hey American, go back to your America you imperialist yankee!"
"Which one, North or South?"
"Does it look like I care!?"

Nah. That would be isolationist superpower.

In hegemony there's no place to go back to.
"Go back to your office to work for my financial results" is the logical endpoint of economic warfare.

 

[onesteptwostep]

American immigrants in China was what I was aiming for, but that works too.

Another would be,

"Oh hey I love your culture! Want to get a Big Mac for lunch?"
"Sure boss, I love Big Macs"

Or

"Why do you celebrate a fat old man going down a chimmy on the Winter Solstice?"
"Shh it's just a part of their culture, you have to respect it"

 

[Urakro]

About ENTP: I dunno, but I do know that that guy doesn't act like that in real life. Err, he did a TED talk and had a much different persona.

I always hated geography and history, so they are just not part of my reality.