Why Shady Sands was awesome, in brief.[]
Shady Sands, which was an obstensively primitive community, was bound together by a concept of observance and a fairly naturalist philosophy. After Herr Tandifuhrer reforms it into NCR, the idea of expansion, evangelisation and ultimately ancestor veneration, lead to a parallel we see in real life theocracies. What I'm too lazy to dissertate, (here at least, in detail), is that Shady Sands represents civilisation in a very real and tangible way.
Blah blah blah, philosophy major ballz.