Good point and in a nutshell I'd have to say it was fear. Or more precisely, cowardice. Fear is normal, manageable and ultimately, acceptable.
Its people who can't face and accept their fear ( or so many of life's other ugly truths) who would give up everything for the illusion of safety, security and the belief in a Utopian state.
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the sole approval of their own conscience." - - C. S. Lewis