The secret purpose of the State is to be just, to be principled, so that we don’t have to.
This is not a dig at the State. This is totally sincere. There have been cultures and ideologies, throughout our histories, that placed all the burden of principle and justice upon the individual; they were (and are) some of the most anti-human, spirit-crushing, selfhood-destroying idols that we have ever erected.
Go forth into the world, my friend, and become whatever monster your soul demands that you be. Trust in the institutions that we have built to shoulder the awful weight of Optimal Goodness. And please, for the love of heaven, don’t undermine those institutions in the name of your own particular provincial desire…
JS Mill had the inverse view, that informal culture is the enforcer of these principles, and a scary one that crushes liberty at that. Government participation in that is only concerning because it makes these rules explicit.
I’m not arguing with Mill at all – very much agreeing with him, in fact. This is hinging on the normative / positive distinction. There are lots of “informal cultures” that enforce such principles; they are crushing, and drive people mad. In the worst cases, they succeed at burrowing into people’s brains, and train those people to do the enforcement on themselves. (See: everyone driven to self-destructive patterns of “scrupulosity” by religion or SJ or whatever.)
Better all around to be free people in a free society, and leave principled justice to the State.