xenophobia
Xenophobia is the noble art of fortifying imaginary walls around one's comfort zone, styled as a civic virtue. It elevates fear of strangers to a moral high ground, ensuring belonging through exclusion. Often lauded in the name of safety and order, it functions as a last ditch defense mechanism against personal anxieties and ignorance. Left unchecked, it transforms cultural diversity into a dull chorus of identical opinions, where the only foreign concept permitted is the fear of the foreign itself.