Personally, I feel a lot of spiritual kinship towards Mohists (imo much cooler by my modern/Westernized tastes than Legalists, Daoists, Confucians and other philosophies popular during that time).
(the story below is somewhat stylized. Don’t take it too literally).
The Mohists’ main shtick is that they’d travel the land teaching their ways during the Warring States period, particularly towards weaker nations at risk of being crushed by larger/more powerful ones. Their reputation was great enough that kings will call off invasions based only on the knowledge that Mohist disciples are defending targeted cities.
One (somewhat anachronistic) analogy I like thinking of Mohists is as nerdy Jedi. They are organized in semi-monastic orders. They live ascetic lifestyles, denying themselves worldly pleasures for the greater good. They are exquisitely trained in the relevant crafts (diplomacy and lightsaber combat for Jedi; logic, philosophy, and siege engineering for Mohists).
Even their most critical flaws are similar to that of Jedi. In particular, their rejection of partiality and emotion feels reminiscent of what led to the fall of the Jedi (though I have no direct evidence it was actually bad for Mohist goals). More critically, their short-term moral goals do not align with a long-term stable strategy. In hindsight, we know that preserving “balance” between the various kingdoms was not a stable strategy since “empire” was an attractor state.
In the Mohists’ case, they fought on the side of losing states. Unfortunately, eventually one state won, and then the ruling empire’s morality were not fans of philosophies that espoused defending the weak.
Personally, I feel a lot of spiritual kinship towards Mohists (imo much cooler by my modern/Westernized tastes than Legalists, Daoists, Confucians and other philosophies popular during that time).
(the story below is somewhat stylized. Don’t take it too literally).
The Mohists’ main shtick is that they’d travel the land teaching their ways during the Warring States period, particularly towards weaker nations at risk of being crushed by larger/more powerful ones. Their reputation was great enough that kings will call off invasions based only on the knowledge that Mohist disciples are defending targeted cities.
One (somewhat anachronistic) analogy I like thinking of Mohists is as nerdy Jedi. They are organized in semi-monastic orders. They live ascetic lifestyles, denying themselves worldly pleasures for the greater good. They are exquisitely trained in the relevant crafts (diplomacy and lightsaber combat for Jedi; logic, philosophy, and siege engineering for Mohists).
Even their most critical flaws are similar to that of Jedi. In particular, their rejection of partiality and emotion feels reminiscent of what led to the fall of the Jedi (though I have no direct evidence it was actually bad for Mohist goals). More critically, their short-term moral goals do not align with a long-term stable strategy. In hindsight, we know that preserving “balance” between the various kingdoms was not a stable strategy since “empire” was an attractor state.
In the Mohists’ case, they fought on the side of losing states. Unfortunately, eventually one state won, and then the ruling empire’s morality were not fans of philosophies that espoused defending the weak.