It's part of the rugged individualism and personal responsibility narrative. It feeds into the atomization of people in the US.
Nobody is going to help you and you don't want to rely on the government to save you. It's your neighbor who's going to steal everything you have if given the chance. Other people are jealous of what you have. If you don't lock your door or buy a security system, it's your fault if something bad happens.
And like others have said in this post, there's the fantasy of being able to use your guns in a legal way. You get to do acceptable violence and you prove that you were right for not trusting people if somebody breaks in.
But another aspect of this fear is whether you're part of a marginalized group. If you're Black in a white neighborhood, you can't rely on the police and you might not be able to rely on your neighbors to have your back.
There's a lot of fucked up unconscious things going on in US society.
It's part of the rugged individualism and personal responsibility narrative. It feeds into the atomization of people in the US.
Nobody is going to help you and you don't want to rely on the government to save you. It's your neighbor who's going to steal everything you have if given the chance. Other people are jealous of what you have. If you don't lock your door or buy a security system, it's your fault if something bad happens.
And like others have said in this post, there's the fantasy of being able to use your guns in a legal way. You get to do acceptable violence and you prove that you were right for not trusting people if somebody breaks in.
But another aspect of this fear is whether you're part of a marginalized group. If you're Black in a white neighborhood, you can't rely on the police and you might not be able to rely on your neighbors to have your back.
There's a lot of fucked up unconscious things going on in US society.