Government has been and still is used to regiment society in very real ways. In all likelihood it always will be used this way. Believing that it shouldn’t serves to distract from that reality and from the actions of those who use it to achieve their goals. E.g. pushing for small government is often used to remove regulation so that capitalists can offload more of their costs (such as externalities) to the rest of society - a.k.a. socializing their losses.