Define the word "American"

Hot dog
Baseball
Football
Michael Jordan
Michael Jackson
Pop culture
Robert Frost
Mark Twain
WASP

"How can we be just in a world without mercy and merciful in a world without justice?"

Washington
CIA
cowboys and indians
lots of isms - mercantialism, patriotism ect.
credit cards

"I am Akba-Atatdia"

When I think american I think of...

Ignorance
immoral
indulgence
critical

And at the same time I think

Passion
Brilliance
Innovation


But mostly ignorance.

"My mind is tearing me apart, then it constructively puts me back together again."

One thing I've always wondered is why do Americans all have flags in their yards? Everyone knows there in the United States. I guess it must be a patriotic thing...

"I love to see people struggling for their purpose in life..."

big

ive never known the americans even try to do things by half sizes. cars food everything has got to be as big as is physically possible, or its just not worth it.

as for restless's last 3 words, i think i link them with oter countries more than america. passion especially brings to mind france, spain or italy. (though is spose it could also cover latin americans.)

"So Schrodinger's Cat is not only neither dead nor alive, but might also be sexually aroused by elbows and peanut butter?"

I think wyote did a nice job summing it up.

When I think of the word "American", I think of a guy in a cowboy hat, standing next to his huge truck, with an American flag hanging off the back.

Then of course I think of D.C.

and Wall Street.

And bickering congressmen.

Oh, and fast food.

"How am I not myself?"

simple equation really
America = External Factors (See Attolia)
Life = All (See... "Well Duh!" )
.
. .

America is not all that.

"My given name is Clinton Mark Lowe"

a big pile of shit.

"Wht cry for those that often cry? Instead, help them smile, and smile for those that smile."

When I was a kid we all hated America. Saying the pledge of aligence was voluntary and no one would dare. Just salute the flag and someone would beat u up. Then we get to desert storm and everybody loves America - now - everybody hates America again.

But I love what I think America is supposed to be, balance of power, freedom of speech. We don't put people in jail because we think they are terrorist and we don't torture, and this isn't America anymore. A storm took my flag down over a year ago and I refuse to put it back up, because it represents no country I know of.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

America is vengeance. They always need to hit with greater or equal force than what occurred to them. The Japanese hit Pearl harbor they hit them with nukes. The terrorists hit them with the 911 attacks they bomb the shit out of them. They need simple retribution with vengeance.

"I love to see people struggling for their purpose in life..."

the inability not to stoop to the level of their enemies. i heard an american kid at my old school talking about how he and his dad and brothers thought the 911 attacks were ample justification for the USAF to carpet bomb innocents in Iraq or afghanistan.

"So Schrodinger's Cat is not only neither dead nor alive, but might also be sexually aroused by elbows and peanut butter?"

Ya - I bet those kids in Iraq or Afghanistan thought we had justification.

"A fool says I know and a wise man says I wonder."

Ok, we're getting back to talking politics and going off on a tangent (related, but not the topic of this thread.)

If I were a Chinese woman born in the U.S, lived in Texas for 10 years, moved to Russia, wrote English novels, would I be an American novelist or a Chinese novelist?

If I lived one mile from the U.S border in Canada, would I be American or Canadian?

Can the word "America" be clearly defined?

Can we say that what's American is European seeing how colonists who came here were mostlu European?

"How can we be just in a world without mercy and merciful in a world without justice?"

for your first question, it would be up to you to decide on which group you aligned yourself with, if you were first/second generation born in america, then prob chinese, if 3rd or 4th onwards, prob american.

2nd question, canadian, u live inside canada, no matter how near to the border, you are still canadian.

3rd, america can be clearly defined, as it is a place, it could be defined in the purely geographical sense, or economic, or political.

4th no america is not european, it possibly could have been counted as such pre independence, but now it is a seperate continent, and european mean "belonging to the continent of europe" so no.

"So Schrodinger's Cat is not only neither dead nor alive, but might also be sexually aroused by elbows and peanut butter?"

I'm talking about the cultural aspects, not the ridiculous technical aspect of borders.

I can consider myself Canadian by culture, but if I write a book, the literary world will call me American. So what am I in that case?

The whole point of this thread was to list any cultural traits of "Americans." They don't have to be unique to America alone (as someone pointed out that greed and commercialsm isn't limited to America alone.) But a list nonetheless.

And please point out why Americans are different from Europeans (besides the obvious of geographical location.)

"How can we be just in a world without mercy and merciful in a world without justice?"