> One of the things that falls out from that design is a hue and cry any time the suggestion of a bad influence of one person over another is possible.
Fear isn't the wish to be left alone by other people and it certainly isn't more prevalent in societies where what you describe as its cause (bad influence of one person over another) occurs less often (as you wrote).
Fear is caused by what we perceive as real and imminent threats. If we are told convincingly that certain threats are more "real" than they actually are (as with terrorism, which apparently justifies a trillion-dollar security theater), we will have this emotion more often, whether we are free or not.
Fear isn't the wish to be left alone by other people and it certainly isn't more prevalent in societies where what you describe as its cause (bad influence of one person over another) occurs less often (as you wrote).
Fear is caused by what we perceive as real and imminent threats. If we are told convincingly that certain threats are more "real" than they actually are (as with terrorism, which apparently justifies a trillion-dollar security theater), we will have this emotion more often, whether we are free or not.