Axial
Original: Axial on Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal
Transcript
Two women walk together through a green, hilly landscape, talking. One has red/auburn hair; the other has curly blonde hair and round glasses (the blonde does most of the explaining).
Panel 1 (red-haired woman): How do you explain the "axial age"? How come humans were around for millennia, then all the sudden in just a few centuries you get Socrates, Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Mahavira, Zoroaster, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras... almost all modern religious and philosophical traditions come about in like two historical seconds?
Panel 2 (blonde woman): Yeah, that happens right at the moment when urbanization gets rapid.
Panel 3 (blonde woman): Death, pain, hatred... these things can be borne without an entire school of thought to make sense of them. Know what can't be? NEIGHBORS.
Panel 4 (blonde woman): Urbanized societies are more productive and creative, but having four roommates, NONE OF WHOM ever clean the common area, EVER cannot be tolerated without a powerful ideological movement tended by thousands of theorists.
Panel 5 (blonde woman): So, Buddhists say there's no actual self to get annoyed at having to clean half-empty bottles off the broken coffee-table. Confucius tells you to cultivate self-control. Daoists say not to struggle against what happens naturally. Jainists say no violence. Platonists say anger comes from ignorance!
Panel 6 (red-haired woman): Why do you think it took further centuries and the appearance in the FLESH of GOD HIMSELF to plead with people just to "love thy neighbor"?
Panel 7 (blonde woman): Why do you think even two millennia later, Sartre is saying "L'enfer c'est les autres." This is a guy who has no inherent meaning, and he's STILL focused on how annoying other people are!
Panel 8 (red-haired woman): So why is modern hyper-urban society getting less religious and less philosophical?
Panel 9 (blonde woman): Did you know that alcohol production became inexpensive in the 19th century?
Votey:
A single panel with a large speech bubble in a faux-biblical voice (no visible speaker, just gestural scribbles below): "THOU SHALT CLEAN THY SHIT FROM THE COMMON AREA!"
Panel 1 (red-haired woman): How do you explain the "axial age"? How come humans were around for millennia, then all the sudden in just a few centuries you get Socrates, Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Mahavira, Zoroaster, Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras... almost all modern religious and philosophical traditions come about in like two historical seconds?
Panel 2 (blonde woman): Yeah, that happens right at the moment when urbanization gets rapid.
Panel 3 (blonde woman): Death, pain, hatred... these things can be borne without an entire school of thought to make sense of them. Know what can't be? NEIGHBORS.
Panel 4 (blonde woman): Urbanized societies are more productive and creative, but having four roommates, NONE OF WHOM ever clean the common area, EVER cannot be tolerated without a powerful ideological movement tended by thousands of theorists.
Panel 5 (blonde woman): So, Buddhists say there's no actual self to get annoyed at having to clean half-empty bottles off the broken coffee-table. Confucius tells you to cultivate self-control. Daoists say not to struggle against what happens naturally. Jainists say no violence. Platonists say anger comes from ignorance!
Panel 6 (red-haired woman): Why do you think it took further centuries and the appearance in the FLESH of GOD HIMSELF to plead with people just to "love thy neighbor"?
Panel 7 (blonde woman): Why do you think even two millennia later, Sartre is saying "L'enfer c'est les autres." This is a guy who has no inherent meaning, and he's STILL focused on how annoying other people are!
Panel 8 (red-haired woman): So why is modern hyper-urban society getting less religious and less philosophical?
Panel 9 (blonde woman): Did you know that alcohol production became inexpensive in the 19th century?
Votey:
A single panel with a large speech bubble in a faux-biblical voice (no visible speaker, just gestural scribbles below): "THOU SHALT CLEAN THY SHIT FROM THE COMMON AREA!"
Alt text
A nine-panel SMBC comic. Two women walk and talk across green hills: one with red/auburn hair, one with curly blonde hair and round glasses who does most of the explaining. The red-haired woman asks how to explain the "axial age" -- why nearly all major religious and philosophical traditions (Socrates, Buddha, Laozi, Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, etc.) appeared within a few centuries after millennia of human existence. The blonde answers that it lines up with rapid urbanization: death and pain can be endured without a school of thought, but NEIGHBORS cannot. Cities are productive but having four roommates who never clean the common area is intolerable without an ideological movement, so Buddhists deny the self, Confucius preaches self-control, Daoists say don't struggle, Jains say no violence, Platonists blame ignorance. The red-haired woman notes it took God appearing in the flesh just to say "love thy neighbor," and the blonde points out Sartre still complained "hell is other people" millennia later. Asked why modern hyper-urban society is less religious and philosophical, the blonde replies that cheap alcohol production arrived in the 19th century. Votey: a single panel, faux-biblical text in a big speech bubble over loose scribbled gestures, reads "THOU SHALT CLEAN THY SHIT FROM THE COMMON AREA!"
Transcribed by Claude Opus 4.8.