Having read Mishima's Confessions of a Mask, Spring Snow, and Runaway Horses, I must say his philosophy completely enthralls me. Similarly, entirely due to my fascination with him, I have recently begun thinking- "What is a good death?". People say that you die for nothing when you're killed in a robbery, but I also think you die for nothing when you fall asleep in your hospital bed surrounded by family members. What did you really die for? Mishima, on the other hand, even if only for his own vanity, died for something. He chose what he would die for.
@@danielbaumgartner572 he was a weakling who dreamed of becoming a kamikaze pilot but wasn't fit for duty. And he couldn't accept getting older and not being able to find boyfriends. He was dreaming of dying in the name of Japanese Imperialism and since he couldn't, he threw a fit and killed himself in front of an audience. He was a good artist. But emotionally immature. Also, he was bullied for being a poetry nerd.
He’s saying people in the modern world don’t have a heroic death? What’s his definition of that? Because I would argue the vast majority of people in human history don’t have heroic deaths. It seems like he’s fantasizing the idea of death throughout history as gladiators, samurais, spartans, warriors, etc. when in reality most people in history either died of age, disease, and lack of medicine or food/water. Very few throughout history were actually warriors who went to battle and died in what we presume to be a glorious death, but was probably gruesome and in no way glorious. A kamikaze pilot isn’t a glorious death. Committing seppuku isn’t glorious. Dying in the middle of a field fighting for an empire that no longer exists isn’t glorious. Death is rarely glorious. The tale of Sparta’s 300 is glorious, but how many thousands of other battles happened that we know nothing about. For every glorious death, there are a hundred million regular ones. It’s always been like that and will always remain that way.
If you ask a lot of people in combat whether they rather die a heroic death, or at old age in a hospital, most would chose the later. Philosophy is nice, but most criticisms of the world sound better on paper than in reality.
@@magouliana32 yes correct, you disagree in spirit ...but in reality you're not a battlefield fighting for their safety so we're on the same page. Things sound nicer on paper than in reality.
@@magouliana32 You're saying it in a context where you're attacked, of course it's more honorable to meet any challenge with bravery, but we're talking about two different contexts.
Yes. If you want to look at it from a sociological perspective, one of the things that held people together before the Internet (and Postmodernism as a whole) was the sense of community. Those community bonds were strengthened by the idea that all were interconnected and working towards a common goal of upholding certain ideals and traditions that brought a sense of purpose to the individual’s life. In other words, to believe in something larger than yourself and stand on your principles, even if it means dying an early death. Death is fascinating because it used to be more of an omnipresent feature of life before Postmodernism became the dominant mode of thought after the Second World War. Before, people encountered it on a regular basis. Whether that be killing animals for food (no supermarkets), crime (killing in self defense due to no overarching law enforcement agencies), or simple war and strife. We’ve become atomized and insulated against the primordial realities of death. In the full interview, Mishima talks about how most people today, himself included, will not die honorably. Instead, they will die at ripe old ages in hospital beds, probably from disease. There is no drama and no heroism. While we have more creature comforts and leisure available to us than at any other point in human history, these luxuries are fundamentally incompatible with the human psyche. Especially since technology has developed so quickly. Those advancements have outpaced our mind’s ability to adapt to them. This is why you see that the incidence of depression, anxiety, and other mental illness have skyrocketed. Modernity teaches us to fear death, rather than accept it for what it is, a natural part of the human experience. That’s the worst part, living in fear. Mishima also mentions how people today live only for the sake of living, which is really to die. Only much slower. So, is it really better to live the way we do today? Or is it better to die for your principles in hopes that you accomplish your mission for something greater than yourself? I choose the latter.
