I've observed strong bonds are formed during hardship, so enduring the teenage years/military service/some other hardship with others will result in a deeper friendship, but people are moving around so much that even if you have such bonds the other person will likely move to another city.
Nearly all political persuasion is framed as a moral argument and dissenters are publicly shamed. Eg. You are a bad person if you drive a SUV. This is not just a property of the left
The narrative in this country is people who dont agree with the liberal establishment are mentally ill in the form of racism, sexism, etc. This is the level of political discourse we put up with.
Beergardens were common until WWII, at which point they were associated with Germanism. Most parks I see get very little use, one empty baseball field after another, it wouldn't take much to liven them up.
I think whats missing is greenspace with a commercial element. If you attach a beergarden or cafe to a greenspace people will spend much more time there
This is about the NSA, not the CIA, but still a nice link.
"As the most recent National Security Advisor of the United States, I take my daily orders from Dr. Kissinger, filtered down through General Brent Scowcroft and Sandy Berger, who is also here. We have a chain of command in the National Security Council that exists today."
This might be true but the option for Americans is the American city or the American suburb. A lot of bloggers who rail against the suburbs juxtapose it against some beautiful European city.
I think there's a handful of American cities with good urbanism, where as Europe has presumably thousands.
I think it's more the case that American cities are just not that great especially compared to European cities. The proposition for city life in the US is not that compelling unless you are taking about very few cities. So the average person moves to the suburbs and uses a car.
Of course our big cities are not great due to the automobile, but the average person can't do anything about that.
