Timothy Snyder's book "On Freedom" might be a good read for you. It's about this common (but quite recent) fallacy that freedom means only freedom of government interference or oppression, rather than true personal freedom being something that needs to be built and maintained by society at large -- which would be the core role of government.

In simple terms: how free do you think you would truly be to lead life the way you want if there were no institutions that produce and distribute electricity, manage communications networks, research and produce medicine, provide emergency services, build transportation infrastructure... something to think about. Few modern westerners would equate the idea of "freedom" with that of fully self-sufficient, isolated hermit life with everything that entails.

A lot of people today probably simply forgot how much of their cushy lifestyle was made possible by government, because they never had to work or fight to build it.

In fact I have! And that has greatly informed my opinion: the people I encountered in those countries were every bit as capable as common Americans, but they lacked the institutional support which Americans so easily take for granted.