How Much DO You love America?

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I'd say option 3.  I'm becoming somewhat disillusioned lately.  Suburbia sickens me.  I like the illusion of togetherness and realness though.  It was once what made this a great place.  You can still find those kinds of places some places, but it's hard.

You need to leave the country for a while.  You'll appreciate America much more when you do.

I say this from experience.

There are many positive things about America and Americans that I won't waste time listing here... but don't be too disillusioned.

There is a lot of room for improvement.. but there are a lot of things that we take for granted that you miss immediately when living in a foreign country... and they're not all little things.. some of them are very fundamental differences.

But being the Irish/Scottish/Norwegian/Swedish/German that I am, I am of course conflicted as too how much I love America.  So I'll say "could be worse"

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I'd love to.  I'm actually planning on moving to Portugal after grad school (we'll see how much changes by then, haha).  I've spent a bit of time abroad before and noticed a lot of differences, but nothing that made me miss American life so very much.  It's of course hard to say without having lived differently.  But growing up seeing what I love turn into a suburban mess was horrible.  Then I moved south and was horrified.  I love the city and I love the farmland, but I hate the very concept of suburbs.  Sometime I'll be able to see something different and might be able to re-see the greatness of American life.  As of now, all I can see is it disappearing and becoming more and more bought by commercialism.

I only ever lived in a suburb until I was 3.. so I don't remember it at all.. but I grew up envying the suburb kids cuz they could all hang out together... and I grew up in the middle of nowhere.

I mostly grew up in a small town, though... so my whole view of "America" is probably completely different.

But still...I never even really knew what made me American until I left for a year.

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Hmmm...

I think it was the neighborhood you grew up in.

Some really good friends of mine grew up in South Minneapolis in an area that was all built in the 50s and 60s.. it's very suburban (though it's still on the grid system).  There were kids everywhere and we'd play with them whenever we were down there.. riding bikes or rollerblading to the playground or playing hide and seek at night... etc.

It always seemed pretty careless and friendly and genuine to me.

I think it is just more where you grew up.. I think you just had a bit of a raw deal in that regard.

A lot of it has to do with where in you U.S. you live as well.  There is a much stronger sense of community here and people are connected a lot better here.  Sociological studies have found that places with a stronger sense of community have residents that are more satisfied with life.

But again.. it is the faceless, nameless, drab, bland, don't know my neighbors how can put up a bigger fence mania that has taken over the country that takes a lot of that feeling away... so I agree with you there.

You've basically taken the anonymous city attitude and applied it to a "rural" area.. it just doesn't work.  You have to have a lot of people living in a dense area for anonymity to work.  In the suburbs, being like that just makes everything cold and not worth being proud of... as if the 'burbs were just the means to an end.. it's just that we haven't found out what end we're trying to reach yet.