Interesting. For once, I'm not sure I completely agree with Umair on this. Living here in CA, but not being from here, it can be startling how different people are from those back home. However, spending a fair bit of time in the agricultural towns of the Central Valley (this is the "other" CA, the real bit, not the beach town, Hollywood bit) I would say the problem isn't that people lack feelings, or that they are detached in the way that psychopathy would define detachment, it's more like there's a lack of understanding of how to channel the excess of feelings into some way of creating meaningful change. The country isn't soul-less. There are traditions and (albeit recent ones among the settlers) cultural activities, it's seems more like the diet of individualism they've been fed for decades has left them more ... aimless, lost, and hurt than anything else. I see tremendous levels of empathy, caring and mutual support in these communities, it just doesn't seem to have a viable mechanism for finding it's way to state and federal legislatures.