Where did the word "Homeland" come from, and why are we using it?

[Lethe]

In my twenty-six years, I never heard the word "Homeland" being used as a reference to the USA until after 9/11. Why did people start using it? Why the need for it? It seems to imply that the USA owns lands elsewhere besides the 50 states....right? It just seems odd that everyone started referring to the USA as the "Homeland" all of a sudden.

Anyone else thought about this or find this odd or unnecessary?

[ThreeCatNight]

1. Because Father Land ws already taken....eom

[Norquist Nemesis]

21. The other night on History Channel

it was "Motherland" straight from the mouth of Hitler (as translated, of course).

[kysrsoze]

2. Reminds me of "Paterland" and seems very fascist to me.

[SnowGoose]

3. Yea, I find it jarring too.

reminds me of "the fatherland".

Then again, that's not so surprising considering the bunch currently in power.

Edited to add: Damn you people type fast!

[coalition_unwilling]

47. I think the closest German analog is "Heimat"

I just watched a great 10-hour movie by that name

[hvn_nbr_2]

52. I think that's correct.

I heard people use the word "homeland" before 9-11, but the people who used it were the same ones in rural Pennsylvania (Pa. "Dutch", i.e., German) who painted giant "GET US OUT OF THE UN" signs on the sides of barns. In other words, the Reich-wingers have been using the term for a long time, and 9-11 enabled them to thrust it into the national lexicon.

[Marie26]

61. It's Nazi-esque

It also has a pretty big psychological whallop. "Homeland Security" - homeland inspires all sorts of fuzzy thoughts about home & family & country; and security connotes protection of all those wonderful values. They're protecting your family! Why would you want to question that? And it sort of worked for a long time.

[sui generis]

4. george bush pulled it out of his ass. Literally. Out of his ass.

It's the most fascist nazionalist "vaterland" bullshit I have ever heard and it makes my balls crawl every time I hear an American government official use it.

Domestic Security. Simple. Democratic. To the point.

[fasttense]

5. It's copying the Fatherland/Motherland terms that the Nazi used. n/t

[FVZA_Colonel]

66. Actually, didn't the Soviet Union use "Motherland?"

[hobbit709]

6. "Homeland security"

is the same phrase Adolph liked to use too, according to my mother-who had to listen to his speeches at the time.

[napi21]

7. I think it cam from the days of Hitler, and I HATE IT!

Every damn time I hear DHS, or "protect out Homeland" all I can think of is WWII.

I have been trying to think of a differenet name to promote, but so far nothing has really caught my ear.

[drbtg1]

46. How about "Dept. of AMERICAN Security"?

works for me

[Marie26]

62. How about no DHS at all?

It's a beuracratic nightware that doesn't seem to be able to secure anything. Why not just have separate agencies like it used to be? FEMA would function better for sure.

[Crankie Avalon]

8. 'Cause Pa wouldna unnerstood "heimat" nt

[spinbaby]

30. What is homeland security in German?

Heimatsicherheit? Wonder if Hitler used that particular word a lot...

[coalition_unwilling]

49. LMAO (n/t)

[magellan]

9. It was spewed from the Repug spin machine

From the beginning it smacked of the Nazi "fatherland" to me...and that was before I took an intense disliking to Bush** and his plans for this country.

[DS1]

10. Scumfuck DraftySkip thought it would be 'down-homey' and the

ignorant fucks all bought it.

[Ron Green]

11. This term should be ridiculed at every opportunity.

It ought to be used in jokes, puns, plays on words and in every possible way to diminish its impact upon the public psyche. Our nation and our world are about much more than this sort of small-time paramilitary posturing.

[magellan]

15. Right on!

From now on when anybody foolishly uses the word Homeland around me, I'm going to lean in close and ask, "Sprechen sie Deutsches?"

[Marie26]

63. Any suggestions? nt

[Ron Green]

68. For example,

I will often suggest, whenever occurs an unexplainable glitch in some system or a delay in service, "Must be Homeland Security." This always gets a laugh, and, I hope, diminishes the importance of the term.

[Marie26]

71. And also

DHS is doing a pretty good job diminishing their importance w/every screw-up. The agency itself is almost a joke now.

[liberal N proud]

12. It is supposed to excite a great feeling of nationalism in each of us

Just like the Fatherland did for the Nazis in Hitler's Germany

Strange that they would choose a term so close to a Hitler term, isn't it?

[IsItJustMe]

13. Honestly, it reminds me of Fatherland or Motherland. Phrases used

by some very very bad countries in the past. They couldn't use those phrases, because of the very bad connotations associated with them, so they picked the next best thing; hence homeland.

To me, it's a call to blind patriotism. God forbid if you had an independent thought.

Click on the link in my sig and it might provide some light.

[IsItJustMe]

16. They have PR firms at the WH that thinks up this shit to indoctrinate.

And as you can see by the last two elections, it works.

[Lethe]

33. i found this to be insightful and humorous

from your link:

"You want to create a slogan that nobody's going to be against, and everybody's going to be for, because nobody knows what it means, because it doesn't mean anything, but its crucial value is that it diverts your attention...."

this is what the bush admin is absolutely fantastic at producing. they are experts at this stuff.

[IsItJustMe]

37. Yeah, he writes some deep shit for a thinking person.

[Burma Jones]

14. It is a little reminiscent of "Heartland"

And until 9/11, our worst terrorist incident was in the "Heartland" and was carried out by folks from the "Heartland"

[RBHam]

17. Homeland Security equals The Gestapo

Ve know how to make you talk.

[baldguy]

18. Because the "Homeland" really doesn't include the liberal coasts.

[LisaLynne]

19. I'm glad people are still irritated by it.

I could not believe they were using it, the first time I heard it (just after 9/11). It really is reminiscent of the Third Reich terminology. That's why when people get offended if someone compares this administration to Hitler, I'm like, hey, they started it!

[DBoon]

20. Everytime I hear the words "Homeland Security"

I get this twitch in my right arm.

[lectrobyte]

29. My whole body twinges. Also when I hear the word "Gitmo" for

our gulag. It just sounds like too cute a word for such an ugly un-American thing.

[mattclearing]

22. Lieberman proposed it.

I've always found it extremely offensive. The only people who have the right to call this country a homeland are the Native Americans.

I was in New Mexico recently, and saw this t-shirt. I may have to buy one:

[Beowulf]

28. Gestapo was short for:

Geheime Staatspolizei. My German's pretty rusty, but doesn't that mean "National Homeland Police"?

[Lethe]

34. hahah!

that t-shirt is great! i'm gonna have to round one of those up. you know where we could get one online?


btw....fuck lieberman.

[mattclearing]

39. I googled homeland security 1492.

I just bought mine from a shop called Ye Olde Curiosity Shoppe. It was the first result I think.

[brook]

67. I like it.

The shirt, I mean!

Count me among those who see "Homeland Security" as hitleresque. The term turns my stomach. It also plays into the bigotry of the most rabid anti-immigration, "close the borders and where's my gun" types.

edited for clarification!

[MuseRider]

23. Wherever it came from

we need to stop using it as soon as we get a new administration. It totally creeps me out, can't stand it.

[JohnyCanuck]

24. It caught my ears right away too the first time I heard it used

And to my mind it does have unfortunate connotations with the word "Fatherland" as used by the followers of you know who (The dictator we are not allowed to mention in the same breath as Boy Blunder).

I am assuming it is just more of this The Nazification of America and this Brainwashing America

[Norquist Nemesis]

25. Well, we have at "home" and we have a "broad"

The fundies started imagining XXX things with the second, and warm fuzzies with the first.

[Catrina]

26. Yes and I hate it ~ as other DUers already said, it reminds me of Hitler

but it's no surprise considering who is running this country.

The Patriot Act is another example of nazi rhetoric, combined with all the nationalistic, flag-waving hysteria, all of which reminded me from the beginning of Hitler's regime ~

I bet they admire Hitler, I know Ledeen loves Fascism, becasue he said so ~

But it's probably very comforting language to the Bushes, after all their fortune came from dealing with the Nazis ~ we really ought not to use it, except to ridicule it every chance we get ~ I hope all this will go when they are gone ~

[lectrobyte]

27. Yes, it's annoying. Creeps me out At least PNACers are only

going for 100 years instead of a thousand, but the trappings of Hitler's Germany echo all through their moves. The PR stunts, the screened and scripted appearances etc.

[Inland]

31. Because "protecting Americans" might be misconstrued as, say, health care

Protecting Americans might lead someone to suggest health care or bird flu virus. Protecting a homeland doesn't allow for rhetorical expanisions. Protecting America, by the way, is reserved for wars with foreign countries. I'm serious.

[riona]

32. the folksy touch

oh, and i loved the color coded alert system too.

[leftchick]

35. I was thinking the same damn thing today

I heard some NG moran on c-span repeating it over and over this morning which got me thinking about its origin. I believe it started the day of Sept. 11 and has intensified dramatically. Rhetoric, symbols and repetition are a hallmark of fascist regimes.

[IcyPeas]

36. We must protect the HOMELAND from the "EVILDOERS"

who talks like this? Evildoers!!! another word that drives me crazy. like talking to a 3 year old.

[leftofthedial]

38. It was a PR decision

probably Reichsmarschall Rove

It intentionally echoes "Vaterland/Fatherland" from the Third Reich.

[roguevalley]

40. the Reichsfuhrer wanted it. I cringe to this day when I hear it.

[derby378]

41. Sieg Heil, mein Homeland Security Fuehrer!!

I say we abolish the department altogether. If we can't, then let's rename it Department of Domestic Security or something like that.

[Double T]

42. "homeland" sounds like some folksy, patriotic word.........

conjured up by the bushco 'word smiths'. These are the same 'word smiths' that use 'death' instead of 'estate' tax; use 'pro-abortion' instead of 'pro-choice'; use 'partial birth abortion' instead of 'late term abortion'; etc. "Homeland Security" is actually the "Spying on American citizens agency".

[Garbo 2004]

48. See the Hart-Rudman Task Force, formed under Clinton Administration. n/t

[Lethe]

43. wow, so i guess i'm not the only one this bugs

it really shows how transparent the media is. one person coined the term, and next thing you know everybody in the government and media is using it with zeal.

[Igel]

44. Because 'Fatherland' is too patriarchal, and

'motherland' too non-patriarchal. Everybody has a home, even if it's a cardboard box.

And pretty much every language has at least one word for the idea. Some have multiple. Most aren't embarrassed about their words--after all, they're words, and most of the connotations people are reading into 'homeland' in this context is transferred from elsewhere; most people use them with a bit of pride, whether it's the Russian 'rodina' 'motherland' or French 'la patrie' 'fatherland'. Excessive pride is bad; lack of pride is sad.

Then again, the Latin word for 'fatherland' is at the root of 'patriot', one who is loyal to one's fatherland.

Many languages also have words for one's own people, as opposed to everybody else. Russian 'narod', used alone, contrasts with everybody else's. Even MEChA has 'la Raza'. "Deutsche" is just _Teodische_, 'belonging to the Tribe'. It's gotten difficult since some nations derived their name from the ruling ethnicity, and not everybody in that nation bears that ethnicity; it used to be much simpler. In any event, assigning one ethnicity to everybody in the US is simply gauche. But there is a common territory.

And, yes, we do "have" territory other than the 50 states. We have embassies, which are sovereign US soil; we have military bases; and we have assorted territories.

I'm not sure how I'd feel about "US Security". It seems initially geared to protect a home turf; "US Security" seems a bit too broad for that. Then again, if DHS has undergone mission creep, it might be a better moniker.

[Garbo 2004]

45. Hart-Rudman task force used the term. Predates Bushco, final report

& recommendations presented to Pres and Congress in Feb 2001 and was ignored. It was about the threat of terrorism and how the US should prepare to deal with it. No one was particularly interested, Bush put it on the back burner, turning it over to Cheney who had more important things (secret energy meetings & stuff) on his "to do" agenda. As I recall the report included a recommendation to reorg gov't and create a Dept of Homeland Security. After Sept 11 Bushco and Congress dusted it off and acted like they just invented the idea.

Some more info on Hart-Rudman report here: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Hart-Rudman_Task_Force_on_Homeland_Security

[allalone]

50. I will NEVER

use this term. too nazi for my taste.

[coalition_unwilling]

51. It's *'s way of mobilizing his Nazi base while

not offending the rest of us (at least the rest of us who haven't studied modern German history).

[ladjf]

53. It's a nostalgic throwback to the Nazi "Homeland" that Halter was

so fond of saying.

[onenote]

54. apparently it goes back at least to Clinton

I always thought the emergence of the word "homeland" was a bit odd -- why not "domestic" security. But when I started digging into it, I discovered that, in the context of terrorism issues, the term "homeland" has been used at least since Clinton was President. In particular, in 1998, Clinton issued Presidential Decision Directive No. 62, which was entitled "Protection Against Unconventional Threats to the Homeland and Americans Overseas.

Of course, after 9/11, we heard a lot more about terrorism and homeland protection than before, but apparently it was the "term of art" even before 9/11.

http://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blaw/general/pdd62.htm

[Odin2005]

55. I'm not against the Department's existance...

...the DHS contains things that were needlessly spread out across many departments before. The problem is that disaster preparedness agencies like FEMA shouldn't be lumped with agencies dealing with counter-terrorism and federal law enforcement. The term "Homeland Security" is a bit too Orwellian-sounding, though. "Dept. of Federal Law Enforcement" would be better.

[Ino]

56. It's creepy

I cringe whenever I hear it. It's probably supposed to stir up apple-pie patriotic fervor, but it's too reminiscent of Hitler for me!

[dogday]

57. Definition of Homeland

homeland n. 1 one's native land. 2 any of several partially self-governing areas in S. Africa reserved for Black South Africans (the official name for a Bantustan).


Do you know what comes after the word homeland in the dictionary?


homeless adj. lacking a home.  homelessness n.

[Disturbed]

60. P.A.T.R.I.O.T Act Acronym

Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism

It is quite a clever creation for the word and distinctly Orwellian.

[Cleita]

58. In Nazi Germany it was the Fatherland. In Soviet Russia,

the Motherland. In fascist America it seems that the Homeland is something the fascists would think of. Close but not exactly like the terms that went before it.

[degreesofgray]

59. I had a negative, visceral response

the first time I heard "homeland security," as if Big Brother had suddenly planted words in the administration's mouth.

[Bluebear]

64. "Vaterland" didn't pass the focus group. nt

[uppityperson]

65. Reminds me of South Africa, creeps me out too. nt

[proud patriot]

69. Because they expected us to go fight a crussade

to protect the "homeland"

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

70. Ein Volk! Ein Reich! Ein Fuhrer!

The Nazis had an agency called the Reichssicherheitshauptamt, organized to oppose "all enemies of the Reich."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSHA