Started reading Robert Nozick's Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974 Basic Books edition) a couple days ago.
Was struck by the second paragraph in the Preface. Seems to get right to the heart of the predicament we find ourselves in.
Maybe I should have posted this in the Covid thread?
Here's that paragraph: "Our main conclusions about the state are that a minimal state, limited to the narrow functions of protection against force, theft, fraud, enforcement of contracts, and so on, is justified; that any more extensive state will violate a persons' rights not to be forced to do certain things, and is unjustified; and that the minimal state is inspiring as well as right. Two noteworthy implications are that the state may not use its coercive apparatus for the purposes of getting some citizens to aid others, or in order to prohibit activities to people for their own good or protection." (emphasis Nozick's).