Editing Openai/6904e1b3-b1d4-8007-b938-da625cb3f2bb (section)

=== Assistant: Perfect — let’s sharpen it with concrete contrasts. ===
Perfect — let’s sharpen it with concrete contrasts. Here’s a draft expansion with examples from Athens, Rome, and Pompeii woven into the framing with Jesus’s words:

The Roots of Law

Even in antiquity, thinkers and prophets warned against the dangers of law drifting away from life itself. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees, who multiplied traditions and regulations without spirit, saying: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots” (Matthew 15:13). His words strike at the heart of the issue: a rule not grounded in truth, in reality, in the living order of things, cannot endure.

In the ancient world, rules were few but direct, rooted in immediate necessity. Athens imposed fines for littering in the agora because waste in the central marketplace disrupted civic life. Pompeii regulated bakeries to ensure fair distribution of bread, a staple of survival. Rome’s early laws were carved into stone, visible in the forum, where citizens could read them. These rules were not abstractions floating above life — they grew from it, addressing tangible needs of survival, fairness, and order.

By contrast, today’s bureaucratic systems multiply layers of rules with little relation to lived reality. Entire sectors are built upon abstractions like tax loopholes, algorithmic compliance, and privacy frameworks (GDPR, for instance) that few truly understand but everyone is bound by. Unlike the visible, grounded laws of antiquity, today’s rules are hidden in fine print, accessible only to specialists, and detached from the soil of daily life. They function like weeds: invasive, opaque, and often serving power more than necessity.

The horizontal society must heed this principle. Rules should not be abstract layers added for their own sake, nor instruments of hidden control. They must be “planted” — rooted in the ground of shared life, tangible needs, and universal truths. Only then will they endure without becoming a burden heavier than life itself.

Do you want me to cite more obscure but striking examples (like how Solon limited funeral expenses to avoid social competition, or how Rome banned excessive feasting), or keep it focused on a few simple and relatable ones like bakeries, marketplaces, and food?