“From our perspective, many, many years later, there are a few comments to make on this dispute between the Confucians and the Mohists. On the issue of love, the Confucians are more realistic. They leverage the self-interest that all people have, and build circles around it, extending it outward. That means that the Confucian ideal is quite practical as a social model. The Mohists were more idealistic. They thought that the self-interest of Confucians was unacceptable, which made their universal love difficult to put into practice.
If you ask me which side I lean toward, I can answer without hesitation: the Mohists. They may have been impractical, but they brought into the world a pure ideal of love. This ideal is like light from the heavens. We cannot touch it, but it illuminates us. Confucian benevolence is too caught up in its distinctions between insiders and outsiders, turning human relationships into a labyrinth from which we have not managed to escape even today. Of course, imperfect love is better than no love at all. For those crushed by the pitiless wheels of history, Confucian love was something to yearn for.”