I have much to praise this article for--and I think "densification" is indeed a rot in our society. Forgive me then, for pointing out that there are older institutions in the West than the Church. Deomocracy and trial by jury before one's peers are just two institutions we inherited from Ancient Athens, 5th Century BC. You could go back further to Hammurabi for a legal code, and certainly the "institution" of monarchy -- for better or worse--goes back to at least 3000 BC, maybe older.