Truth doesn't need an authority other than a standard, and sometimes it doesn't even need that. For example, you have cancer. You may believe you don't, but y

Truth doesn't need an authority other than a standard, and sometimes it doesn't even need that. For example, you have cancer. You may believe you don't, but you're going to die anyway. When you die, things have happened according to your truth and not your belief. Now, if you accepted a belief on the basis of say, medical authority that you had cancer, you could have done things like chemo, etc. to prolong your life. Either way, you're still going to die, the truth is unaffected. In this way, authorities and beliefs can be helpful. Or harmful if they aren't resulting in people benefiting. But they aren't synonymous with the truth. This illustrates how there can be authorities and beliefs that are not beneficial, that they are incapable of modifying truth in any way, and if society is a group of people that stay together for mutual benefit, it benefits them to suppress harmful authorities and beliefs. How and to what extent is up to the society itself.