"I’m not talking about the fear of violence or catastrophe; I am speaking about the myriad fears that lead to patterned behaviors that lead to shared group fears and patterns that eventually lead to what we call culture, and through shared culture, Civilization. We fear freedom and space without containment. Like rats in a maze of our own creation, we operate under the assumption that the walls of the maze are protecting us, when in reality they are holding us prisoner. Civilization, as we know it, is nothing more than an elaborate grid of patterned ritual to hold back fear, while keeping the personal concept of the Ego…intact."
http://www.unexplained-mysteries.com/column.php?id=194898