What is America?

I am not an American, and see this, "America" a lot.

I have looked and have found no source for the continued use of this word when referring to the United States of America. Have I missed something?

1. I understand there are a mass of publicly educated people- do they perhaps use this word "America" because they truly believe that is what their country is called?

2. Is it like double-speak from 1984, and people who use this term, "America" are unconsciously including both North and South America into some 2nd Generation North American Union?

3. Does the use of the term "America" help deny the sovereignty of each member country of the union, and thereby complete a mental barricade to secession?

4. Is the newer, cleaner and shorter version "America" merely a colloquial term like "Dave" is for David? Or is there something more afoot working in the minds of the consumers? (consumers were formerly "residents" and prior to that they were "citizens"- but that is a separate linguistic investigation)

America is the name of a Continent. Two actually, North and South.

The founding document of the union is the Constitution, and it states that the entity "We the People" created the entity "United States of America."

Prior to the 14th Amendment of said Constitution, it was commonly understood that citizenship was connected to a sovereign state (easily understood in the Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford).

Culturally over the years, people no longer identify themselves as enfranchisees of their particular "states", and instead have identified both consciously and subconsciously as citizens of the United States of America.

When did the term, "America" begin use? I have read older documents that spoke of "the Americas" but am thus far unable to identify when the term "America" became a culturally popular term.

I am aware that during the Great War (WW1), individual countries of the union ("states") first experienced the federalization of the military.

I know that prior to the Great War, what is commonly called the "Civil War" does not fulfill the requirements of the definition of a civil war (two factions fighting for control of a single entity). Instead we have two separate entities fighting for two separate outcomes.

What is this "America"?

Does it seem strange to you? Is it just skewl educated folks who are too lazy to say "United States of America"? Or is it something else?

Has there been a mental barrier created within the mind to further deny the individual countries of the union? Will the French stop being French in 100 years, and fully assimilate with cultural identity into being "Europeans"? Has the cultural elements we can see through linguistic usage (ie "America") been created by the ever assimilating population, or has there been some US Political Madness that is driving people to assimilate, identify, and allow for broader inclusion into an ever growing regional political structure?

Are Mexicans Americans? Bolivians?

Did the Hungarians ever stop being Hungarians and just turn into "Soviets" (the name of their union)? Have the Australians ceased being Australians and somehow assimilated into their union (with maybe a term like Angle-ish ;-)? The Welsh are gone too?

Why would anyone state they are an "American" when there is no law to back up any Rights or Privileges to that status/identity/citizenship?

Isn't the term and conscious implication of "America" merely Matrix-ic and clouding truer terms and lawful standings?

What is "America" for crying out loud???

reply to post by sakokrap


From Wikipedia

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its forty-eight contiguous states and Washington, D.C., the capital district, lie between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, bordered by Canada to the north and Mexico to the south. The state of Alaska is in the northwest of the continent, with Canada to the east and Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. The state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific. The country also possesses several territories in the Caribbean and Pacific.

The Land of the Free and the Brave, Where Deer and antelope roam.

reply to post by sakokrap


What is "America" for crying out loud???





Calm down...and since you seem to have such issues with national identifications, I'll make it easy for you:

Replace the Stars with Prospect, and you might have a better idea why your OP is pointless; regardless of semantics, "America" is opportunity with a side of chaos and all the crap that comes with it.


[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/4111251c6ae5.jpg[/atsimg]


Make of it what you will, but that's the whole point...

God this is a dumb post
you know what the hell it is, so stop acting stupid.


If you got all that time to post paragraphs nobody cares about, then you could take time to research and know what the hell you're talking bout.

reply to post by wonderworld


Wonder, you have provided the most appropriate response I could have ever asked for. Thank you.

My inquiry was not in fact, "what is the united states of america" but rather, "what is america"?

Your response really states a lot in a silent way. You have performed a mental hurdle that was unnecessary (you know, like the old riddle about the kid who gets hurt with his father and goes to the hospital and the doctor says, I can't work on him, he is my son").

Your response, while quite factual and without contention, is answering a question that was not asked. If you go and look through the first post, you'll see you have provided evidence of mental conditioning (of sorts).

Very interesting...

America is my home and my country that TPTB are slowly destroying! America IS the USA!!! DUH!

I will speak for myself. I personally usually call the USA just "America". And all citizens of the USA Americans.

Well of course I know geography and I know that America is originally continent named by Amerigo Vespucci who is thought to be the one who "discovered" America. Ok. We could argue again - that Vikings were the first ones or Columbus. But that isn't the point - America is America for a long time and was named after Amerigo. We could change the name but why bother. The word sounds good.

So then the founding fathers named their new country - "The United States of America". Which was pretty correct - it was a confederation, union of 13 states located in continent of America.

Then people didn't want use the full name and made shorter names for it "USA", "The States", "America". And "America" became the most popular one as it really sounds the best from other versions. As it is originated from Italian name "Amerigo". And as we all know Italian is the language of music. Most Operas are sung Italian and isn't translated because Italian sounds better.

So what is America? It is a good sounding name that can refer to USA or a continent that makes up almost all landmass of western hemisphere.

All I know is that "America" is rapidly becoming "Bmerica" if not "Cmerica"

reply to post by DuceizBack


Duc, you've got it all wrong man. I have asked a few questions BECAUSE there is no true answer. Your response illustrates a premise that you have yet to state. While you are flippant in your answer, there is no way you can answer the question without using your imagination.

I love Facelift's response. It is an illusory world of Matrix terminology, as clouded as vision with cataracts.

Truly you must know that your "America" may very well be different than someone else's.

It is a word used without any concrete definition. It indeed is not the USA... You can't claim American Rights, or go to an American Court of Law. You can't even find an American Army or American University

It's an illusion, so there is no way to define it other than to ask ppl- "What the heck is 'America'"?

reply to post by archasama


Beautiful response Archasama. I think if people respond as thoughtful as you have, we may well quickly identify that there exists within our lexicon of verbiage a word that is much more fluid than we will have imagined previously.

Personally, I believe the use of this word illustrates things greater than nationhood. Apathy perhaps. Sloth maybe. But if you watch the responses, you too may see some deep seeded emotions about this word. It is powerful to some- despite that there is no definitive definition to source.

Very interesting manifestations of people's minds surrounding this word.

reply to post by kennylee


Ken, you state you live in America, and bridge the term America with the United States of America.

If you highly regard your country, the United States of America, would you use a "pet name" for it? In a similar sense, Steward called President Barry, "Dude" and had wide ramifications. So informal terms are often construed as disrespectful.

Is it not the same with you?

If you hear kids call the United States of America, "Amery" would you be offended or find that term disrespectful?

If so, why would you use a "pet name" for something you highly regard?

reply to post by sakokrap


There is a American Univeristy right in our nations capital. www.american.edu... America is word used in many different ways. There is North, Central and South America. There is America, used by many as short for United States of America. America to me is a place of opportunity. Where a person who is focused and works hard can attain their life's goals.

America has some ugly sides, which seems to be brought up more often than all the good of America. No place is perfect, however I see the USA (America) as a place of growth. In the last 100 years racism and how women are looked at have changed drasticly. I believe we will continue to improve as a nation. There may be some stumbling blocks, but the "American" spirit has not faltered yet, and I don't think it will anytime soon.

reply to post by sakokrap


Did my explanation fall in to "merely Matrix-ic and clouding truer terms and lawful standings" as you would say?

reply to post by wonderworld


lol! It certainly does (if you're intending to be facetious a bit ;-)

With just a few respondents, we can already see this "America" is something different to each an all.

For you is could be the good ol' USA,
To facelift it is an illusory Dreamland,
To Duce, is would seem so obvious as to take offense having it challenged,
To Kenny is appears as a country, and as a home.
Archasama looks to the historical meaning of the word and uncovers how it has birthed.
Dumbass shares a really funny (S! on that one) definition of something losing value or losing performance.
Amc understands it has different uses, but sharpens the definition as you did to one of the USA.
characteristics of this "America" he notes is a "place"
and that place is one of opportunity.
He even includes the word "nation" while speaking about it.

Thing is, I was born in one of the member countries of the union... served in the military (US type 1 each), and there is no way under the sun I would ever define myself as an American. Heck, I have grandfathers of the same family name that date back to North America before the French Indian Wars. I have a grandfather of the same family name who fought in the Albany Militia against King George's Red Coats... but sure as I'm a man, I certainly am no "American."

I still am interested in how people's understanding of this differ (if any). Already it is a mixed box of jargon. To some an idealistic place of opportunity, to others a place of swirling garbage.

Irrespective of these different opinions of the term "America" I'm certain that the term United States of America is much less debatable. There is a founding document. There are rules, branches of government, etc... It is more of a machinery, or tool. Where folks may feel this way or that about the United States of America, they're more often referring to the people using or abusing that tool, but not the tool itself.

Now "America"... that's a whole different story. What the devil is it fcol?

Culturally, it is difficult to put your finger on what this "America" is.

For instance, take the Theme Song from Team America


Here we see that culturally, "America" is Walmart, and McDonalds. It is the Gap, and lots of other stuff.

True, we do see the image of the Flag of the United States of America herein, there is no reference at all to the United States of America itself. Just this "America".

As it is used colloquially, "America" cannot be the "United States of America" as illustrated by the song, Amerika by Rammstein. I was surprised to hear the song actually. Rammstein is a German band singing about the cultural implications of having Mickey Mouse in Paris, Coca-Cola.

Is Mickey Mouse "America"? Coca-Cola? I personally am familiar with these two industries, one an illustrated marketing campaign, and the other a multi-national corporation of which I've heard Ben Bernanke is a large stock holder...

German version


English version


"America" in these examples of colloquial expression seem to be cultural icons. Given the tone of the song, I assume these are undesirable influences.

What I find obvious in these popular expressions is: America and the United States of America are not the same things.

The first exposure I ever had to Amerika is when I was a kid and watched a t.v. program called, "Amerika" (with a "K"). In this, there is a place called "America" that exists without the Constitution creating the United States of America.



This provides a historic (or near historic) use of the term, "America" which shows us that at least in its earlier form, it has been used more as a heritage or nation in the absence of the Constitutional defined union creating the United States of America.

These two popular examples illustrate contrary evidence to the idea that "America" is indeed the United States of America. Further, it shows us the subjective connotations this term has, the deep rooted emotional ties to this word, and the abstract definitions no one can really put their finger on.

reply to post by sakokrap


This is a secret


America is not a country

It is a business enterprise

reply to post by inforeal


I am not going to disagree with you on that definition mate. Not at all. It is AMAZING to see the wonderful PR campaign this "America" thingy has. People will have tears stream over their cheek regarding America, they will blow themselves up with suicide bomb-vests, they will push a button and launch a Tomahawk missle killing who knows how many... and many will not feel as confident of their answer as you seem to feel in yours inforeal.

This is a word with morphious connotations and definitions. Illusory and intangible.

I would like to see a national debate upon this for crying out loud. So many different people with just as many different views.

I wonder though, if a consensus could be struck by the herd, would people seek and find new terminology to express their old definitions, or would they just continue to embrace the old definition and allow for miscommunications? Hmmm...