The Twelve Virtues: Success, Happiness, & Harmony the Hakka Way
Seattle-based inventor and thinker Harry Mokm was born in Vietnam to a Vietnamese mother and a Chinese father, then migrated to Canada as a refugee before settling in the United States in the waning years of the Vietnam War. In this first book, Mokm explores the concept of virtue through the teachings he learned from the Hakka culture within which he was raised in Vietnam, as well as from classics of both Eastern and Western wisdom, including Aristotle, Lao Tzu, Spinoza, and Sun Tzu, amongst others. Equal parts practical philosophy and reflective autobiography, the book mobilizes the eventful story of Mokm's life, from his childhood in Vietnam through his abrupt departure around the time of the My Lai massacre, and from his arrival in North America as a would-be bomber pilot, through his eventual conscientious objection and political exile, as a lens through which to renew the relevance of Hakka wisdom.
For Mokm, the conception of The Twelve Virtues began nearly two decades back, in the years following the turn of the Millenium, during which society witnessed increasing social inequality, an explosion in homelessness, the malaise of 9/11, and the return of American military adventurism in Iraq, all of which triggered his recognition of a common thread underlying all of the diverse phenomena. Increasingly lacking understanding of and appreciation for the virtue ethics that had served as the glue for both Eastern and Western cultures for millennia, Mokm felt that today's societies have abandoned their respect for the sanctity of human life itself. For this reason, he set out to write The Twelve Virtues as an effort to make a contribution to post-Millennial thinking and acting that might help to stem the tide of thoughtlessness and heartlessness, through Hakka culture and ideas. Beyond this role, the book also serves as a conduit through which his latest inventions might be contextualized, including a forthcoming algorithmic technology that might help humanity transcend the legacies of outdated economic systems.
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