Utility

Utilitarianism believes in the greatest good* for the greatest number of people. This is something with which I totally disagree. Every person is equally important. Their needs are not to be subordinated to those of some hypothetical ‘humanity,’ but neither should they be elevated over those of another.

This is, to be sure, more difficult in practice than in theory. We are bound to place the needs of our loved ones ahead of those we don’t know. Humans have a certain amount of built-in tribalism, both for better and worse. The dynamics of all this is certainly useful fodder for the fiction writer. I rarely write of actual politics in my stories but one can probably detect an undercurrent of a left-libertarian (that is, anarchist) viewpoint.

Fortunately, most of my protagonists are practical sorts and can work with this.

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*Not that anyone can agree what this is. Some say ‘happiness’ but I can be quite happy being unhappy at times.

Connections

As Taosim is a philosophy rather than a religion, I have no problem calling myself a Taoist Christian. I could apply the same label to Francis of Assisi.

The Taoist influences on his ideas — and those of late medieval Christianity in general — had filtered into Europe via Islamic thinkers and poets, particularly the Sufis. These, in turn, had been influenced by the the Taoist teachings and poetry of T’ang China.

Of course, ideas had always flowed both directions. The premodern world was much more connected than historians used to believe. No culture is unique; all have been touched by outside influences to some degree.

Medieval scholars might not have known the name Li Po nor any of the other T’ang poets, yet they were on the end of a chain of influences that led back to them. They are a part of our culture, just as were the Classical poets of the West.

And, in turn, Hellenistic Neo-Platonism and other philosophies of the West found their way eastward, to India, to China. Ideas are rather portable, you know?