Comfort can look like walls

Freedom was a concept that withered when it ceased to be used by generations. In its place, a new kind of satisfaction arose: the comfort of known limits. People began to define their lives by what they were allowed to do, finding a strange sense of identity and purpose within the restricted permissions granted by the system.
The transition from prisoner to protector happened silently in the recesses of the mind. As the memory of the outside world became faint, the inner world became everything. They came to see their confinement as a form of privilege, believing themselves to be the only ones safe from the chaos beyond the walls. Restriction was no longer a punishment; it was a sanctuary.
They reached a point where they would fight to remain inside if anyone tried to free them. The walls had moved from the physical world to the architecture of their own minds. They guarded their own confinement, convinced that the locked door was the only thing separating them from total destruction.