I think those drawn to Kava, especially those where the cultural norm does not have it woven into the fabric, are so because we are seeking to supplement the experience we are receiving here. I'm east coast America, partied hard in the big cities, certainly done my fair share of mind altering substances... but where have these experiences lead me? To Kava. There is something about it, truly I want to get my hands on the book "Kava - The Pacific Elixer", because I view the substance as an elixer of life.
Certainly we have also all been down the rabbit hole of counter culture media, understanding the fallacies of our government, the corruption, the inside jobs and even delved into political ponerology, maybe you all have gone into multi dimensional studies, quantum physics, lucid dreaming, ancient astrologically aligned pyramids, atlantis, lemuria, ascended masters school of thought, plaidean consciousness, cassiopaean, the mysteries of sirius and the relationship to dolphins/whales, cymatics, fractal expansion, consciousness and self exploration with the help of chemical allies, listened to alex jones, bruce lipton, terence mckenna, red-ice creations, self educated with taoism, buddism, indian schools of thought such as vedanta, practiced tai chi, learned of energy vortex's such as sedona arizona or mount shasta in cali, studied thought in relation to time space, practiced no-thought in the art of meditation, studied psychometry, experienced synchronicities that only a being greater than the whole could have arranged...
to what end? To open the news and see another stabbing, another human losing their mind and murdering their family, do we become affected by this? Muted, blunted by the repetition? I have been told by everyone around me that this is human nature and people act in such a way... there is no way to stop it, they say. Get your slice of land, doors that lock when you go to bed, tune out the bad stuff and focus on the good... it's certainly hard to tune out something that you have tuned in to, although I am sure practice makes perfect.
Kava culture allows me to tune all this noise out... brings me to a finer place, somewhere I can laugh, smile, and converse without a worry in the world... that's what kava culture is to me.