altruism
Original: altruism on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Panel 1:
Person with short hair (questioner): Do you think altruism is possible?
Person with curly dark hair (responder): No. Virtuous action brings pleasure, making all good deeds ultimately selfish.
Panel 2:
Responder: Meanwhile, bad actions aren't created by shame. If anything, the shame just increases the total misery in the world.
Responder: The nature of life in this universe is that true goodness is impossible. While true badness is so easy it happens by accident.
Panel 3:
Questioner (now looking dejected, sitting on the ground): Well, now I'm miserable.
Responder: See? I wasn't even trying.
Votey:
The questioner, still slumped on the ground, looks up.
Questioner: Okay, I was trying a little.
Person with short hair (questioner): Do you think altruism is possible?
Person with curly dark hair (responder): No. Virtuous action brings pleasure, making all good deeds ultimately selfish.
Panel 2:
Responder: Meanwhile, bad actions aren't created by shame. If anything, the shame just increases the total misery in the world.
Responder: The nature of life in this universe is that true goodness is impossible. While true badness is so easy it happens by accident.
Panel 3:
Questioner (now looking dejected, sitting on the ground): Well, now I'm miserable.
Responder: See? I wasn't even trying.
Votey:
The questioner, still slumped on the ground, looks up.
Questioner: Okay, I was trying a little.
Alt text
A three-panel SMBC comic. Panel 1: A short-haired person asks a curly-haired person, "Do you think altruism is possible?" The curly-haired person replies, "No. Virtuous action brings pleasure, making all good deeds ultimately selfish." Panel 2: The curly-haired person continues at length, "Meanwhile, bad actions aren't created by shame. If anything, the shame just increases the total misery in the world. The nature of life in this universe is that true goodness is impossible, while true badness is so easy it happens by accident." Panel 3: The short-haired person is now slumped dejectedly on the ground, saying "Well, now I'm miserable." The curly-haired person replies smugly, "See? I wasn't even trying." Votey: The slumped person looks up from the ground and admits, "Okay, I was trying a little" — undercutting the claim that causing misery was effortless.
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.