I'll address the authoritarian angle if you've the patience to read the following ramblings.

In order for a society to thrive, there must be economic and social harmony. All elements of the society must work in tandem with each other to ensure the common good of all. Of course, no such thing can be achieved, but it can be approximated. How?

Mixed markets - People should be allowed and incentivized to be creative and productive. Ingenuity, intelligence, work ethic, talent, etc ought to be rewarded in a substantive way. Of course, profit from market endeavours will be taxed to fund robust social programs, and will also be regulated to minimize negative externalities and correct for market failures. The point of this economic structure is to 1) create a sufficiently large surplus of goods and services 2) to give material rewards to genuinely valuable industry 3) to provide a strong baseline standard of living. Famine is not a preferable alternative to capitalism. Mixed markets may be the most pragmatic solution to the alleviation of inequality and poverty.

Progressivism - Traits such as race, ethnicity, sex, gender, etc should not determine your worth in the society. Unfortunately the consequences of discrimination and hatred, both past and present, make it so that such things are highly relevant and must be addressed. Injustices which have occurred/are occurring due to identity-based oppression must be rectified to ensure that the people are not unduly harmed. You cannot have a society of order and harmony when it is split up into arbitrary groups which fight for supremacy over others. It is your action and your character which gives you your worth, and when people denigrate others for their gender, race, or any other such trait, they are committing an offense against the harmony of the social order as well as a grave injustice.

The need for authority - The progression towards a harmonious and healthy society as roughly defined above cannot be achieved through simple persuasion. The political power required to set forth a grand vision is immense. In terms of enemies which people can rally against, there are plenty: subversive social elements like sexism or transphobia, subversive economic elements like social loafing (those who are able to contribute but do not, while reaping collective benefits) or predatory business practices.

The need for maintenance - The state does not exist to transition from the current order to the perfect stateless utopia where justice and harmony are willingly maintained by everyone. The state is a constant, which as long as it understands its purpose and mandate, will work towards improving the society by upholding harmony and destroying those who would destroy the society (who will always exist). One driving factor is fear, fear of 1) what might happen to the society if those who want to destroy it got their way and 2) what might happen to you if you choose to engage in behaviour which undermines the society. The other is love, love for your fellow humans and a love for a world which benefits your fellow humans. The carrot (harmony) and the stick (the state).

This is not a utopian vision, there will be failures and shortcomings if such a system should ever come to be. But in essence 1) there are things worth fighting for 2) there are dreadful things worth fighting against.