Was the alternative to liberalism to praise an anti-democrat like Yukio Mishima?

For some time now, a small segment of the Spanish right has been cultivating a discourse as hostile to liberalism as that of the left.

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These discourses often identify liberalism with so-called "globalism," a diffuse entity whose essence is difficult to define but to which all kinds of evils are attributed. Three years ago, I warned here about the risks of this "antiglobalism," recalling how others used antifascism and anticommunism as disguises to defend totalitarian discourses. Often, many antifascists and anticommunists are as much enemies of freedom as their rivals.

This growing anti-liberal wave has been accompanied by arguments against the "Regime of '78" (an expression that is also often heard in leftist ranks) but without explaining what alternative is being defended, although sometimes it is not difficult to imagine it. Likewise, and as I have also pointed out here, this movement has promoted nonsense such as the rejection of "boomers", as those of us born during the so-called "baby boom" of the second half of the 20th century are commonly known. The left instigates an absurd struggle of the sexes and that small part of the right promotes an absurd struggle of ages.

You don't have to be very clever to understand that the rejection of liberalism, often bluntly presented as a rejection of democracy, can create monsters. The last century is a clear example of this, but it seems that many have forgotten: the most radically anti-liberal discourses were those of the Nazis and the Communists, the two totalitarian movements that started the Second World War with their alliance to invade a Catholic, conservative, and democratic country: Poland. Today, these anti-liberal discourses once again exhibit the same vices as 90 years ago, without any dissimulation.

In fact, the latest chapter in this anti-liberal drift seems to consist of praising Yukio Mishima, a Japanese writer who has been admired by various sectors of the extreme right for decades. Mishima was a man who detested liberalism, democracy and capitalism, identifying them as the evils that were corrupting Japanese society. On November 25, 1970, he and four other members of his nationalist private militia, Tatenokai, perpetrated a failed coup d'état by storming a military barracks in the Ichigaya neighborhood of Tokyo and kidnapping its commander.

During that action, Mishima gave a speech to the soldiers in that barracks to support his coup d'état. The soldiers ignored him and the coup failed. After its failure, Mishima committed seppuku, a ritual suicide famous for being part of bushido, the samurai code. One wonders what idea of honor does a Westerner have who extols this absurd samurai idea of ​​suicide as something honorable, considering that for Christianity, which is the spiritual root of the West, suicide is a grave sin.

I have to admit that this isn't the first time I've seen someone on the right defending enormous nonsense. Common sense, unfortunately, gets kicked from all points of the political map, but I expected people who claim to defend the Christian roots of Europe to be a little more sensible. The problem arises when Christianity is defended as a mere "identity" to reject others, but without sincerely believing in its principles and even defending things radically opposed to them. Things that, by the way, should make the left happy. The ideal for them is that there is a (fortunately small) part of the right that is determined to identify with the worst caricatures that progressives make of their rivals.

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Photo: Yukio Mishima during his speech during his failed coup d'état on November 25, 1970.