When I was a kid (back in the early 60's) I read a Chinese children's story about a king who was paranoid about being assassinated. Someone tried to assassinate him with a knife, so he outlawed those. Then someone tried it with a fork, and he outlawed those too. Finally, someone tried to do him in with a spoon and he did away with those. So people had nothing to eat with, and so they invented chop sticks, the word "chop" supposedly means "good".
I doubt if there is any basis in fact to this story, or even if it is actually a story from China, but it occurs to me to be an object lesson on how those in power fear the people and will go to ridiculous lengths to take all power out of their hands.