Culture Shock In Green California, Where Even Homeless People Drink Craft Beer {Gadling}

Dec 7th 2012 11:13AM That's the point I'm making. There is nothing about the situation you describe that is so Californian. As I said in my email, you were looking at the world headquarters of the organization. It's pretty common (that is, not specifically Californian) for the primary location of a religious organization to be opulent. Check out the Vatican some time. It's pretty crazily fancy, even though it isn't in California. Here in Boston we have the Christian Science World headquarters, also very impressive and opulent. The main Morman temple in Utah looks pretty opulent, too. I could go on and on. I'm just saying your premise is, "California is sure weird, look at that crazy building, only in California!" So it's worth considering whether that's really true, or not.