I reckon that reputation of “another country” is more of a historical perception of California, vis-a-vis other states and mindsets, mainly in the latter half of the twentieth century. It was based upon a number of lifestyle choices, and perhaps freedom of expression, that California represented – from counter-cultural Berkeley communities, to some of the lifestyles surrounding Los Angeles, out into the desert, and also reflected in certain pockets of film and mass media. Notions ranging from spirituality, to architecture, to food choices, to environment … I would also gather that if one hails from California, it may be more difficult to recognize that California was at one time (and may be still in some ways) a pioneer. There has been some scholarship on this, but some of the reputation is more of a pop cultural phenomenon. I remember, for example, reading Tom Wolfe’s essays chronicling surfer culture, etc. in the '60s, in his “The Pump House Gang,” as one of many literary examples.