Narration flows as pan down from a blue sky to slowly reveal a classical temple with a silhouetted statue of The State backlit by a sunrise.

NARRATOR: We did indeed need a bigger narrative!

To recap: Without some sort of narrative, our society can’t be any larger than a band, where everyone knows everyone else intimately. Our daily, shared existence is where we demonstrate loyalty and reinforce norms.

The narrative of kinship—of lineage, tribe and clan—made it possible for us to cooperate with people we barely even knew! Our shared belief that we were on the same team made it possible to share allegiance, loyalty, and norms without personal, daily experience of each other’s behavior…

even though this team existed nowhere but inside our own heads—purely the product of our shared imagination!

And yet this imagined narrative was powerful, transcending time and space, enabling us to build communities that could combine and scale up rapidly.

Efficient, too! Now we enjoyed the benefits of intense social commitment, without bearing the burden of monitoring everyone else all the time.

Still, kinship could only get us so far.

And so…

As our communities grew larger and denser… As unrelated people had to start working together… We needed to imagine a team even greater than family—a team we’d nevertheless instinctively feel part of, part of our very identity. We needed a narrative that was bigger than ourselves… separate from ourselves… a narrative with a life of its own… and which would live on long after we individuals had passed away.

It was time for a new revolution.

It was time for THE INSTITUTION REVOLUTION!

JOE AND SIS IN UNISON: Or as I like to call it:

JOE: The Road to Religion!

SIS: The Road to Rulers!

PANEL: Joe and Sis putting on elaborate ancient headdresses.

JOE: Religion!

SIS: Rulers!

PANEL: Joe shrugging, Sis having a realization.

JOE: Meh, I guess one could argue they’re the same road…

SIS: Nuh-uh. I know what you’re thinking, but-

SIS (Thinking): Wait, what am I thinking? He could do most of the work on this bit, if I let him.

PANEL: Sis pushing Joe forward to the next panel.

JOE: It’d be messy, but we could tell both stories at the same time. We could call it “From Kinship to Kingship.” Ooh! Or how about “Church and State?”

SIS (overlapping Joe’s words): No! No! You’re right, too messy. You go first. I insist!

PANEL: Joe making an expansive “picture this” gesture in front of a heavenly sky.

JOE: If you say so. All right! Let’s take a quick walk along… THE ROAD TO RELIGION!