Spirit vs. Culture

There's been a very real schism between culture and environment. I often wonder what the landscape would look like, and what it would feel like to interact with if there were no roads, side walks, towering buildings, districts...The vastness would create a sense of awe that I believe we are wholly missing out on in our day-to-day realities. Mountains, sand dunes, oceans, sunrises, the night sky, are becoming swallowed by what we call progress. Perhaps this is why we "escape" to nature. That sense of size, feeling hopelessly daunted by the potency of it all, makes us children again to our great mother earth. 
@aundre recently posted this question on his Facebook: "What is the biggest lie we tell ourselves as Americans?" It's been haunting me. I've kept it on the backburner and this morning a thought surfaced. Culturally, we as Americans know very little of the spirit of the land we live on. Before British colonization, there were people who lived in ways much more connected to their surroundings. The origin of American culture was to forgo this necessary understanding, which we've been doing ever since- not knowing any better. Perhaps it's become less of a lie over time, and more of a byproduct of ingrained ignorance. There can be a merge, but thus far there hasn't been. Individuals take it upon themselves to gain wisdom from the past, meeting it at the present, but culturally there is a great emptiness. I wonder if it will ever happen. If that language will be learned.