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The idea of home in America has become a confused combination of entertainment values and social pathology. Mass media overdoses, consumer overkill, fear of crime and madness now combine for a cynical portrait of the American home that could be anything anywhere to anybody. The safe, idyllic small home town of an innocent past is gone.

Comparing home towns of Neffsville, Pennsylvania and Hopeville, Virginia reveals the cultural reality of north and south as one crosses over the Mason-Dixon line. Neffsville does not bring up any particular emotions. Hopeville brings comparisons to Thornton Wilder's book 'Our Town,' with a community resistant to change, and the grief of death by cancer from a chemical factory's pollution.

American towns have changed from the homogeneous communities of an idyllic past to become part of the multicultural mix that is common to the big cities. Mass media and pop culture have brought American values to the rest of the world, and the immigrants of the world have brought influences back to America. Mass media and the automobile have brought the resultant mix of big city and world cultures to the American towns.