Fear may be the greatest threat to America...

[kentuck]

...and our freedom.

How can we be free if we are fearful of walking our streets? How can we be free when crime is so rampant - when we worry that our homes or cars will be broken into - or when we think we may be attacked by a total stranger on the street?

Is this paranoia or is this reality? Was there really a time in the past when we could leave our homes and not worry about locking the doors? Have we really reached the point where we cannot leave our homes unless we have a weapon on us, concealed or otherwise?

Have we lost our freedom? Or has our society simply become more paranoid?

[sufrommich]

1. Most people in this country who live in constant fear,

live in areas where that fear is totally unjustified.

[Orrex]

2. Fortunately they have easy access to firearms so that they can feel super-safe.

[1StrongBlackMan]

3. I tend to agree; but, would not limit tis to the "threats" you identify ...

we, also, "fear" (are to fear) the "Oligarchy", surveillance, the TPP, and any number of other "boogeymen".

[madokie]

4. Its another wedge issue some people will vote based on

its a way for the republiCONs to control the masses is how I see it.
After all it is the CONs who use Fear as a wedge, am I not correct?

[HereSince1628]

5. I hate being locked out of my own home. I was raised in a house with unlocked doors

My parents not only left the doors unlocked when they slept, they left the doors unlocked when they were off shopping. As a 15 year old not wanting be packed in close proximity with family on their vacation, I stayed home, and they didn't have a key to give me. And so I, too, went about my life having left home-base unsecured. And stuff, of which we didn't have much, never disappeared. When asked about security my father said if he was going to be robbed, he didn't want a broken door or window to be added to the damages. The same applied to the garage.

Now I live in the SO's house and it is always locked, even when she's in it, whether awake or asleep. With deadbolts locked on the doors and a rape bar dropped in behind the sliding door as soon as the sun gets low.

She grew up in a row-house Pullman, a neighborhood that transitioned to pretty deep poverty and crime during her teens. Half a century later living in a very middle middleclass neighborhood, she and therefore I live as if those risks are ever present. The windows are almost always closed and locked with the shades never more than partly open. I love window screens and the freedom from A/C cooling bills, but they are a problem if every time you leave the house or go to bead you have to close and lock the windows because of fear that someone will enter through them. The garage is locked, inside the doors on the cars are locked, as is the storage locker. You can't conveniently work around the yard without keys in your pocket.

Among the many reasons I enjoyed living in a rural area was being able to live without fear of people breaking in. Certainly to be able to come and go from the yard around the house without worrying about locking up. Being able to be a quarter mile away and well out of sight of the house working on a project without worrying about locking up, leaving windows open to summer breeze day and night (of course with the occasional dash to close up for rain). Being able to go days without keys or a wallet in my pants.

Which isn't to say there weren't people who feared people there too, because there were. But, frequency of events being low, it being possible to be comfortably secure without fear meant not worrying about needing to shoot people or having them shoot me.

Life lived around people sucks when you have to be afraid of them.

[Odin2005]

6. The rate of violent crime has been dropping steadily since 1991.

[kentuck]

7. But it seems that the level of fear and insecurity has increased.

I think it is a question about loss of freedom. It is in our heads.

[JonathanRackham]

8. We're seeing an increase in opiod addiction.

Unless we address treatment quickly the violent crime trend could reverse. My kids former high school has seen several overdoses and related deaths this past 12 months. We've seen an increase in daytime burglaries and car thefts.

Remember the good ole high school days when a couple of underage beers and a joint was the norm?

[kentuck]

9. I remember when shoplifting was a crime...

...instead of a trivial prank just for fun... I have always thought that someone who will steal a dollar will also steal a million dollars. A thief is a thief.

[JonathanRackham]

10. In America I've seen theft for hunger.

Kids with no daytime supervision and nothing in the cupboard at home. I can't fault someone for surviving.

[kentuck]

13. In a Philosophy of Religion course....?

....would they argue that it would still be wrong?

[Iggo]

11. May be?

Absolutely is.

[CanSocDem]

12. And since it is only 'a state of mind'...

...one need only look at modern American society to see how thoroughly it has been exploited.

Fear of death, fear of not living enough, fear of not HAVING enough. It goes on and on as if it was an actual thing and not simply a state of mind.

The lack of fear might be the greatest threat to American society (as it is today).


.

[KeizoOshima2]

14. People in America have become more paranoid than ever following 9/11

I wonder if Americans will ever come to their senses at this point. So far, it seems a forlorn hope, with Trump garnering huge amounts of support by so many people.

[LWolf]

15. How can we be afraid

if we are afraid to be agents of change when change is needed?

[kentuck]

16. Good question...

Just turn the boiling water up a few more degrees, I guess...