> Imagine if everyone did whatever they wanted all the time and cops had to go around physically corralling literally everyone at all times to maintain something vaguely resembling "order."

I don't need to imagine anything. I live on Earth in America and to my mind you've very accurately described the current state of human society.

For the vast majority of humans this is how it works currently.

The amount of government, military, and police and the capital, energy, and time to support all of that in every single country on earth is pretty much the only thing holding up the facade of "order" that some people seem to take for granted.