The culture of fear I'm talking about is a social fear, this idea that there are lots of evil people in the world, ready to do you harm. It divides society; makes people even more individualistic, suspicious of one another, and it has corrosive effects on public goods. Instead of helping out your neighbour (metaphorically, and perhaps even literally), you sneak past and think "there but for the grace of God go I". And the irony is that this attitude actually makes the world less safe. Situations can be taken advantage of in the knowledge that people won't interfere, precisely because they are too afraid.
It's a culture that leads to people driving around in SUVs, living in gated communities, to the point of carrying guns where legal, and voting for governments who promise safety and deliver it with mechanisms of control: filtered internet, surveillance society, TSA, etc. Its endpoint lies somewhere in a Ballardian dystopia, like High Rise or Super-Cannes.
Are you saying we should all just trust the laptop thieves of the world a little more? Maybe stealing a laptop is the worst thing a thief will ever do; maybe not. It's not unprecedented for a criminal to murder a witness to a relatively minor crime in order to avoid a third strike conviction. Is it worth the risk to find out?
There's a difference between "living in fear" and "minimizing risk" just as there's a difference between "living without fear" and "courting danger."
It's a culture that leads to people driving around in SUVs, living in gated communities, to the point of carrying guns where legal, and voting for governments who promise safety and deliver it with mechanisms of control: filtered internet, surveillance society, TSA, etc. Its endpoint lies somewhere in a Ballardian dystopia, like High Rise or Super-Cannes.