People come here to get away from oppressive religions, oppressive governments.
The emphasis is on finding yourself as an individual, so we like to think we don't need anyone else. We act like the boom will go on forever. No other country thinks this way. This, says Bellah, is a kind of self-delusion that comes from our being the surviving dominant power of the post World War II era and from the prevalence of English as a world language, the language of the computer. Bellah's research has shown, however, that these beliefs have dangerously underminded our social solidarity.