I agree! Back when community standards were held in great value? People didn't need Ottawa or DC to tell them right from wrong.

My point in noting that such widespread authority was give to governments is that the 'good reasons' they started with, like fighting CP, end up becoming the literal Inquisition where people are grabbed for trivial, arbitrary "reasons" and tortured into confessing. And their money and land confiscated, of course. Actually this is already going on...