you could have started a war with your neighbors using only sticks and stones - indeed, much of human history is people starting wars with their neighbors using weapons that we today would call primitive.
But now you can start a very destructive war with your neighbors. Thanks to modern technology, you don't have to bother beating your neighbor to death with a wooden club, you now can annihilate them, and basically anything in their immediate vicinity, from a comfortable distance :D
> you now can annihilate them [...] from a comfortable distance
The problem is: they can, too.
Convenient warfare!
For the non-Americans, the modern technology you're referring to is the HOA.