Funny thread really!   The US is no more or less insular than most places anymore and the answer to the question is, "It depends."

On a political/statesmanship level, it depends on who is running the show as to how we treat other countries and how outgoing or insular in our thinking we are. If you go back to the WWI period, we were very insular but began to change after that. In the past 50 years it has greatly depended on the President and his personal view of world affairs.

On the individual citizen level, again it depends. I doubt that on a percentage basis there are greater or fewer folks with a "world view" here than anywhere else. Oddly enough, and to some degree because the country is large with population centers in every region, people tend to be somewhat more "home-bodied" about their own region/state/county whatever. Unless you're financially well off, not to many people think of taking a weekend visit to the other side (or the middle) of this country......the distances are kinda' prohibitive for most. and then some people simply don't leave home....period.

I have lived and worked over most of the United States and when Karen and I settled down in this tiny little village, I should have known better, but was completely surprised at how "insular" things were here. The county seat (Lancaster) is 12 miles away and I go there virtually daily, but people living in Lancaster rarely come here. Not that there is anything here, but a woman Karen worked with needed directions....and she had lived in Lancaster all of her life. I mentioned to someone in Lancaster that a performer was going to be "in town." Lancaster is only 35 miles from Columbus, a major city and the state capital. By in town I meant Columbus. They responded, "In Lancaster?" .....Geeziz, Karen drives to work in Columbus everyday!!! But hey, if it ain't happening in Lancaster, a lot don't bother with it. That's insular.

INOBU and other on NYC folks...........remember Lenny Bruce talking about being Jewish and New York? "If you live in New York or any other big city, you are Jewish. It doesn't matter even if you're Catholic; if you live in New York, you're Jewish. If you live in Butte, Montana, you're going to be goyish even if you're Jewish." Larry, that's why I can never take you seriously as a Quaker.

Spaw