Gradually, almost imperceptibly, the roles of America’s citizens and their government have been reversed:

Where did governments — at every level — get the idea that they are supposed to manage the affairs of their citizens? Governments were first created in America to serve their citizens. Now, citizens must ask their government for permission to build a house, to drive a car, to open a business, or to buy a gun.

The role and authority of government has changed over the years from an entity that serves the needs of its citizens to an entity that manages the affairs of its citizens.

In recent years, especially since the emergence of Agenda 21 in 1992, government has assumed the role of forcing its citizens into lifestyles that government dictates. — Henry Lamb [Emphasis added]

Agenda 21 is a multi-pronged effort whose purpose is to fundamentally transform American society into a placid appendage of the United Nations. To do this, it must first engage in bottom-up social engineering:

Agenda 21 is a set of policy recommendations designed to achieve what it defines to be “sustainable development.” The document claims that this transformation of society is necessary to save the planet.

One of Agenda 21’s first policy recommendations is to “… ensure sustainable management of all urban settlements …” (Article 7:15), which means to force people off the land and into high-density, planned communities. Consequently, government decided that it is a bad thing for citizens to move to the suburbs. Government labeled this practice as “urban sprawl,” and condemned it. Moreover, government continues to enact laws to prohibit or severely discourage people from moving to the country.

. . . To discourage “urban sprawl,” some local plans even require up to 40 acres to build a single home outside a UBZ [“Urban Boundary Zone”]. Even then, the government often dictates the maximum size of the structure, the percentage of the land that must be left in its natural condition, and the location of the structure in relation to any stream or hill. In some instances, government can even require a home builder to purchase open land and dedicate it to the government as mitigation for despoiling what government says is a wetland or critical habitat.

Why does government think it has either the wisdom or the right to dictate to a private citizen where he should live?

Good question. This could be called “grassroots socialism” — entailing completely changing how local authorities relate to their citizens — which is orchestrated at all levels, up to and including internationally:

This transformation of the function of local government is partially the result of requirements dictated by state governments, but primarily, it is the result of pressure from the federal government [and, behind them, the United Nations].

Agenda 21 is a huge Trojan Horse inhabited by innumerable faceless U.N. and U.S. government bureaucrats grimly determined to make the earth a better place, no matter what the cost. It’s the culmination of decades of planning. In 1976, the Marxists decided the least disruptive way of getting what they wanted was to camouflage their goals in harmless-sounding rhetoric:

“Land … cannot be treated as an ordinary asset, controlled by individuals and subject to the pressures and inefficiencies of the market. Private land ownership is also a principal instrument of accumulation and concentration of wealth and therefore contributes to social injustice …. Public control of land use is therefore indispensible.” [Emphasis added]

Whenever you see any document complaining about “social injustice,” you should know right off you’re interfacing with Marxists:

These policies are constructed on the Marxist idea that government exists for the purposes of ensuring that all people benefit equally from the earth’s resources. Marx says that government should abolish private property, and should take from those who have the ability to produce wealth, and give it to those people who do not produce wealth.

Read Henry Lamb’s entire RenewAmerica article, “The Transformation of Government”, here.