When I was studying, I came across the Roman Cicero by chance. He said a sentence that surprised me.There is nothing in the world, he said, that resembles each other so much as people do.He believes that, in the final analysis, people are as similar to each other as they are to themselves.My instinctive reaction was: How is this possible, the difference between people is too great. It was later discovered that Cicero was trying to explore the state of man's "natural origin".That is to say, he wants to cut off the branches and branches that people grow in society, and track down the state of Adam and Eve standing in the Garden of Eden, before they fell.However, what is the significance of this kind of tracing back to the source of human nature?It turns out that this Roman lawyer and politician two thousand years ago was trying to find out the natural law of human society from the natural state of man.

We have been away from Eden for a long, long time now.Having experienced a lawless society, establishing a "society ruled by law" is an infinitely beautiful yearning.But what is the "rule of law"? Are there any traps in the "law"?We start to worship the law, and the law becomes a written word with a laurel crown.When a law comes out, no matter whether it makes sense or not, as long as it is called "law", everyone will be in awe or trembling.It seems that as long as the word "law" is put on top of a piece of text, it is justified if it is unreasonable, and it must be obeyed if it is not followed.

This seems to be a problem.This question was considered by Cicero two thousand years ago.At that time, the Romans already had the initial democracy of human beings, and the laws determined by democracy are not bad, right?Cicero thought it was wrong.He said that the king and the judge have the final say on the law, of course it may be wrong, so if the "command of the people" is to "set justice", then if the public votes to pass a law saying that it is now possible to rob Now, can you really go out and grab things? Is it in line with justice?Cicero wondered that man should have something "natural" that would not "obey the opinions and orders of fools."So what is "nature"?As a result, the old man found himself in the original state of a person like the one in the Garden of Eden.

Once in Eden, I found Cicero still very much on point.If you look carefully, there is really a very similar part between people.As long as you think about it this way, you will understand: all people have some things that they absolutely don't want to happen to them.For example, as long as he is a normal person, no one wants to be killed or robbed, no one wants others to ride on his head to do his best, no one wants to be locked up innocently, etc.This is the state of the "natural origin" of man.If people want to maintain their own living conditions, it is to maintain their "natural rights", which are born with them.Just a few simple "unwilling" have implied the right to life, equal rights, personal freedom and so on.The law that upholds natural rights is natural law.

So another old Roman man, Demosthenes, who was earlier than Cicero, said, "Every law is a discovery."Laws are not made up and arbitrary, and just laws are the discovery of natural law. Therefore, Cicero had already determined two thousand years ago that the law is not something that anyone decides casually, and even the Constitution is not something that is counted if it is passed by a legislative body. Behind it, there must be "natural law".It is actually very simple to identify whether it conforms to the law of nature.This goes back to the saying that "people are essentially the same between people".Therefore, as long as we put the legislators in and try it, we will know whether the "law" is just or not.For example, you plan to legislate that if someone has not committed a crime, law enforcement agencies can arrest him.Well, the easiest way to test it is to tell the legislator that if you haven't committed a crime, they can arrest you, do you think it's okay?If you feel that others cannot treat you in this way, your legislation must be "unjust".

Natural law is the scale of all laws.Using it to measure the law is the basis of what modern people call "judicial review".In this way, the law is not something that can be done at will, so that people can be convinced. I suddenly thought that when people find that people are so similar, not only the legal basis, but also many other problems seem to be solved.For example, it is puzzling to say that human beings who are so essentially the same have no common values.Although the culture of each nation has some special things, there are also some core parts that are common to all human beings.We lament that our traditional culture was overthrown by the radical "revolutionary" culture, and now we are faced with the influx of Western culture. As the descendants of a specific nation, where is our moral basis?Some people want to rediscover the thousand-year-old ancient Chinese culture, while others want to praise foreign cultures.I think, no matter where a culture comes from, if it can finally stand, it must be the part that is in harmony with the "natural state" of people.For example, in the American "Citizen Reader", the content of educating children to develop a democratic character is the same as the Chinese culture's "don't do to others what you don't want yourself to do".Instead of arguing and pitting different cultures against each other, we might as well go back to the Garden of Eden, return to the original state of human beings, and see what we have in common as "human beings".Then, in different cultures, first find our common basic ideals, such as fairness, equality, and freedom; in different cultures, we must adhere to our common basic qualities, such as honesty, sincerity, tolerance and love.

Let us not forget old man Cicero's observation that in a place like Eden we are all the same Adam and Eve.