The State
The state sees itself as the only acceptable organizer of society and sees tolerance of opinions that contradict the status quo as antithetical to its own power. It also provides a fertile ground for an aspect of polytheism, in that those who are corruptible through self-idolatry find within any political system the means for making a false god of themselves.
It's obvious, to anyone who has an elementary understanding of history, that all politicians are corrupt. This corruption is inevitable, and an integral aspect of the essence of politics. Even those who enter it as idealists end up as an inextricable part of the same hypocrisy.
Leading a nation state requires mastery of aspects of statecraft that the ordinary citizen would find horrifying and grotesque. Their own perspective does not allow them to understand that the leader of a nation state must, by necessity, engage in practices like espionage, assassination, and corrupt dealings that wear the mask of compromise and political expediency.
The superior leaders keep these actions to an absolute minimum and manage to make the results morally advantageous to those under his rule, and the rest of the world.
The average citizen has a tendency to expect their leaders to be of absolutely flawless character. To the point of their leaders being a godlike being. This polytheism inevitably leads to the ruin of a society. Part of the reason for this is that no leader can live up to such expectations. It's impossible. And when the leader shows his human failings, the backlash from the public, whether from the sense of disappointment and betrayal that their "god" is a mere man, or that they were expecting their corrupt behavior and delighted in their downfall, will be violent.
The leaders must seek to minimize their own corruption, and never seek power for its own sake (a largely unrealistic exception, to be sure, but necessary nonetheless, and not impossible). And the people must learn to be their own leaders and rely less and less on their rulers to provide and inspire them. They must never make gods of their leaders. Beyond this, the system by which society seeks to structure itself must be based upon principles that transcend political and economic expediency, without becoming irresponsible in worldly matters.
However, I’m perhaps being excessively idealistic. For clarity I refer you to Chapter 11 of Also Sprake Zarathustra by Friedrich W. Nietzsche.