Those of us who studied Hungarian literature in high school or even in college learned plenty about political corruption. Two notable nineteenth-century writers, Mór Jókai (1825-1904) and Kálmán Mikszáth (1847-1910), were astute chroniclers of political corruption. They could document it from the inside because both writers also became politicians. Jókai became involved with politics even before the Compromise of 1867 and ended up as a stalwart supporter of the Liberal (Szabadelvű) Party. Mikszáth became a member of parliament in 1887, representing Illyefalva (Ilieni), Fogaras (Făgăraș), and Máramarossziget (Sighetu Marmație). Both wrote scores of short stories and novels about corrupt politicians. Jókai’s most famous work dealing with corruption is Aranyember (Man with a golden touch), and Mikszáth’s is Különös házasság (A strange marriage).
Of course, one doesn’t have to rely on fiction to get a sense of the extent of political corruption in nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Hungary. A few years ago (2011), András Cieger’s Politikai korrupció a Monarchia Magyarországán (Political corruption in Hungary of the Compromise Era, 1867-1918) explored the topic. The author chose a contemporary caricature of Kálmán Széll, prime minister of Hungary between 1899-1903, for the book’s cover. Széll, by the way, is a great favorite of the Orbán regime. Moszkva tér, which was earlier named after Széll, was reconstructed and once again became Széll tér. In June 2019 a new statue of Széll was erected. In addition, the Orbán government came up with the Széll plan to battle the national debt.
Corruption was pervasive in the years between 1867 and 1918. Tamás Kóbor (1867-1942), who became one of the harshest critics of the Horthy regime, wrote an article in 1901 — that is, during the premiership of Széll — titled “Tisza Kálmán barátja” (The friend of Kálmán Tisza). The friend was Lajos Csernátony, a journalist and former secretary of Lajos Kossuth. He was one of the many writers who got mixed up with politicians and were corrupted along with them. In his short article, Kóbor exposed journalists in the pay of such politicians as Dezső Bánffy, prime minister between 1895 and 1899, “who is no kitten among the corrupt politicians,” and several lesser figures who are described as “friends of Kálmán Tisza, dishonorable hucksters.”
At about the same time, the young Endre Ady began his journalistic career in Nagyvárad (Oradea). He was a relentless critic of local and national politics of the time and was the most famous journalist to expose cases of corruption. Ady’s newspaper articles were collected in eleven volumes.
Political corruption was most prevalent at election time. According to András Cieger, tens of thousands of crowns were necessary to win an election in post-Compromise Hungary. In 1901 Mihály Károlyi spent only the legal limit of 15,000 crowns and lost the election. The voters didn’t think that the food and drink he provided to buy their support was enough. Most likely his opponent offered them more. Vote buying was so widely accepted that in 1902 the Kúria decided that giving two or three cigars to each voter was perhaps even necessary given the widespread habit of smoking. Menyhért Lónyay, Hungary’s second prime minister after the Compromise, expropriated a fairly large sum of money from the budget and used it to buy votes. He was forced to resign, but a few years later he was appointed a member of the upper house. By 1910, the government party, led by István Tisza, Viktor Orbán’s idol, received 4.8 million crowns from a bank in exchange for government orders.
When we come to the twentieth century, the best-known novel, which centers on corruption in a small town, is Zsigmond Móricz’s Rokonok (Relatives), published in 1932. The main character is István Kopjáss, who is unexpectedly named prosecutor and soon enough realizes that there are hundreds of old corruption cases that no one ever touched and by now cannot be solved. At the same time, a lot of people in town discover that they are actually, however distantly, related to him, and all of them ask for favors. Thus, as time goes by, Kopjáss himself becomes part of the local corruption network. One of his relatives asks him to help revive an abandoned pig farm. In the course of assessing the situation, he realizes that he has yet another corruption case on his hands. He thinks he can win this case, but the mayor, who is involved, removes all the documents and laughs in his face when he complains. He explains to Kopjáss that the only reason he hasn’t lost his job yet is because, although the mayor is aware of the “favors” given to his relatives, Kopjáss has never asked for jobs for them at city hall. Kopjáss tries to commit suicide, but his life must be saved because a corrupt prosecutor is an important asset in a corrupt city leadership.
In 2015, György Simkó published a collection of short stories titled Korrupció! Magyar novellák. It includes classic works by such authors as Frigyes Karinthy, Kálmán Mikszáth, Zsigmond Móricz, and István Tömörkény as well as many others from more recent years. Corruption in Hungary is obviously a topic that attracts a broad audience.
The present wholesale corruption, which Tamás Bauer prefers to call the “transfer of public money into private hands,” has inspired interest in past forms of corruption. But, it must be noted, not all corruption is equal. The kinds of corruption that existed in the last 150 years, however heinous, cannot be compared to what is going on today. Earlier, individuals tried to gain advantage, financial or political, in “micro” ways. Corruption today is on a “macro,” systemic scale, where the national wealth is being raided and the proceeds transferred to a few individuals.
Hungary after 2010 became a private, feudal principality of viktor I., the absolute monarch and feudal lord of Fidesztan. (Mészaros Lölő is the private treasurer)
American Hungarian (@AmerikaiMagyar) Tweeted:
AHF’s Statement on 100th Anniversary of Trianon Treaty with Hungary published in Congressional Record and Washington Times.
More info on AHF website
https://t.co/6c7gBIuhhC
https://t.co/G4WnlxWdaf
https://t.co/77eDkjqYzq
https://twitter.com/AmerikaiMagyar/status/1268957538835476481?s=20
The history of corruption is also the history of administration of common property, from collection and claiming to distribution.
In our time and age, extreme contrasts regarding the political and ethical interpretations and tolerance towards the public taking of the (brilliantly phrased) Shakespearian “pound of flesh” can be observed all along the old religious borders of Europe.
Huh?
The border is very old and it is not religious (but rather the other way around, religion&reform was influenced by the this border).
The “West” is separated from the “The Rest” (of the world) by the so called Hajnal-Line, and this line goes back to the Roman and even pre-Roman times (marriage patterns, nuclear family, individualism).
It is coextensive with the corruption issue as well.
Invidious gives us another portion of his potted “folksy” history which is so broad, you can fit in anything at all into it. A few lines sketched onto his world map and “I can prove anything”.
Ignorance clothing itself in irrelevant erudition again.
Down below he tells us that there was always corruption, everywhere, “it is systemic”. Perhaps he should have said endemic. Corruption is a human characteristic. Howse about that! So too is rape. So too is kindness. So too is murder. So too is gentleness. So too is the ideaof “the greater good”. What are we trying to prove here?
That the Thief-In-Chief, our industrial-scale robber of his fellow citizens at a rate unprecedented in Hungarian history… …well, he is only human, he can’t really help it, it is “systemic”?
More limp bull-shit from a source ever willing to “understand” our Dear Leader.
American Hungarian (@AmerikaiMagyar) Tweeted:
AHF’s Statement on 100th Anniversary of Trianon Treaty with Hungary published in Congressional Record and Washington Times.
More info on AHF website
https://t.co/6c7gBIuhhC
https://t.co/G4WnlxWdaf
https://t.co/77eDkjqYzq
https://twitter.com/AmerikaiMagyar/status/1268957538835476481?s=20
American Hungarian (@AmerikaiMagyar) Tweeted:
AHF’s Statement on 100th Anniversary of Trianon Treaty with Hungary published in Congressional Record and Washington Times.
More info on AHF website
https://t.co/6c7gBIuhhC
https://t.co/G4WnlxWdaf
https://t.co/77eDkjqYzq
https://twitter.com/AmerikaiMagyar/status/1268957538835476481?s=20
American Hungarian (@AmerikaiMagyar) Tweeted:
AHF’s Statement on 100th Anniversary of Trianon Treaty with Hungary published in Congressional Record and Washington Times.
More info on AHF website
https://t.co/6c7gBIuhhC
https://t.co/G4WnlxWdaf
https://t.co/77eDkjqYzq
https://twitter.com/AmerikaiMagyar/status/1268957538835476481?s=20
Széll tér is Széll Kálmán tér.
Deák tér is Deák Ferenc tér. Same thing I guess. Just that we’re used to hearing the full name in case of the Moszkva tér and not the Deák tér.
Igen is!
“Széll Kálmán tér, volt Moskva tér”, as Fidesz might put it.
OT:
This reminds me of a German tradition – in every village or city you have a Friedrichstraße, Wilhelmstraße and Karlstraße, Josephstraße and so on.
And often under the street name a small sign explaining which of the many princes, kings and emperors the street is named for. 🙂 🙂
Probably most people don’t know and don’t care at all …
And I also wonder how many people in Hungary know who Széll or Déak really were and what they did for Hungary, sign the treaty of Trianon maybe?
There was another other Széll, Gyorgy, the great music conductor who made very good here establishing fame with the Cleveland Orchestra . Sure he had a number of Magyar listeners since quite a few settled there. He made something of his life. Wonder if he was alive what he would think of how regressive his country has become. Curious if he was related at all.
The problem is that many Hungarians consider the evasion of taxes on a small level almost like a right. And I am convinced that it is part of the victim/minority/passive aggressive attitude that seems to be so present in the population. How many times I have heard that as an individual you can’t do anything about the corruption. Citizens’ emancipation I fear is not for tomorrow because it means that what people obscure should become transparent. It’s not just the top, it’s everyone into the smallest fibre of society. OV knows that “who has butter on his head, won’t go to stand in the sun.” In fact, I think he counts on this low level corruption.
“The laws are merely an instrument for concealing the arbitrary action of the government”- Count Apponyi (1896)
Re: ‘butter on his head, won’t go to stand in the sun’.
Now that would have to be difficult with all the zsir floating by and in greasy palms as a country slip-sides away. And really there oughta be laws that don’t seem to melt in the sun.
” his life must be saved because a corrupt prosecutor is an important asset in a corrupt city leadership.”…”Earlier, individuals tried to gain advantage, financial or political, in “micro” ways. Corruption today is on a “macro,” systemic scale”
As your very example suggests, the corruption was (and in fact it has always been everywhere and in all times) systemic. Of course, just as forests are made from trees, the social-systems are also made from individuals.
In modern Hungary, this system is organized along the political party lines, many patron-client exchange of favours networks, with Fidesz being now the club/system you have to join, be connected to, in order to solve your problems, get ahead fast, etc. In Chicago, the mayor has his network, made from individuals which generate other networks around them, and so on in cascade downwards. (btw, that’s how Roman politics functioned as well, even in the “virtuous”, Republican, era).
Ovidiot, you’ve proved it again!
<i>In Chicago, the mayor has his network</i>
Istvan will maybe tell you but I won’t wait for him.
The current Mayor of Chicago is Lori Lightfoot, a woman who was chief of police before – and she is a) Black and b) Lesbian …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lori_Lightfoot
Yes Wolfi its true about the current Mayor of Chicago Lightfoot she literally has no patronage machine left, under her two predecessors the system cracked because of the cost factor and in particular pension costs. More and more services have been contracted out. Eva’s essay today explained something to me that I did not understand really about both my grandfather and great uncle. They understood completely political corruption instinctively from the Austro-Hungarian experience growing up in Esztergom as children and being sent off to the Army which was just as equally corrupt. Within months of their arrival in Chicago after a brief stay in St Louis they hooked up with what became the Eastern European political machine in Chicago controlled by Antonín Čermák who had emigrated with his parents to the United States in 1874 and grew up in the town which is near Chicago where he was educated before beginning to work full time while still a teenager. He followed his father into coal mining, and labored at mines in Will and Grundy Counties. Likely the coal they mined heated the 1888 home I live in today before its conversion to natural gas. Antonín Čermák got out of mining and went… Read more »
Lost in the current US discussion on systemic racism, is the political operation of African Americans in Chicago and their own corruption. Currently only about 26 percent of Chicago Police officers are black and 18 percent are Hispanic. Really this percentage of African American police officers is about the same as it was in the 1920s during the time of the rise of the Cermack political machine. In general police jobs were given out to the Irish. After a huge race riot in 1919 there began to be Black police officers in Chicago, the joke about them was that there were put there to “serve and collect” a spin on the Chicago police motto We Serve and Protect.
President Obama’s wife’s family was part of the segregated Black political machine in Chicago, which is how her father got a job with the Chicago Department of Water.
“Lost in the current US discussion on systemic racism, is the political operation of African Americans in Chicago and their own corruption. ”
It not politically correct to mention it.. or, by that matter, to mention that 42% of the police officers killed in the line of duty in US are killed by Black men, albeit the Blacks are only 13% of the population (6% Black men)….And a lot of other things, don’t get me started.
Lost was that US went back to space few days ago. Barely anyone noticed because we’re still dealing with this diversity albatross.
Wild how Americans carved a nation out of the wilderness, conquered warrior tribes, fought off colonial powers, built the world’s greatest industrial economy, landed on the moon, faced down the USSR, and then committed collective suicide because some weirdos called them a word..
Ovi
Idiotic argument this “there is corruption/murder/pollution/etc everywhere”; like years in prison or punches, wouldn’t you like to have as few as possible? Where would you rather walk after dark – in Stockholm or in Cuidad Juarez?
And here we have Orbàn and gang as the stark example of what they call “gypsy crime” (cheating, stealing and assault) turned into state system to, ie. the mafia state (Orbàn’s ethnicity notwithstanding).
You don’t understand the argument, Observer, and (as all too typical for you) when what is said doesn’t fit what you already believe, or when you don’t understand it, you come to the conclusion that it is said by a different person, or that what is said is the problem not your grasp of what is said.
DAY 67 OF THE CONTINUING CORRUPTION ORBÁN
DICTATORSHIP
OT:
Dear Eva, I had expected to read something on the glorious Trianon day and how it was celebrated by O1G etc …
My wife told me that he ordered that at a certain time in the afternoon all church bells should ring – so we went outside in the country for a nice walk, far from the maddening crowd …
Can we agree that the Fidesz Trian-onanists took a beating (as it were) yesterday?
They hardly said “Uk, Muk, Fuk”. Perhaps they were celebrating in private…
Re corruption in Hungary:
This old tradition is also kept alive by the unreasonably high taxes. Afa (VAT) of 27% means that you don’t really make money on a lot of work.
So over the years I’ve been accustomed not only to the question : Számla kell?” but tell people myself: Számla nem kell or offer them to pay in € directly …
OT: 444.hu has an article about the restructuring of Századvág (which just received a whopping HUF 9bn (USD 30m) mandate from Palkovics’ ministry, I would say 95% which is simply theft) which is Fidesz’ polling, ideological, money laundering and intelligence arm. Arpad Habony, Orban’s most trusted and influential “background person” apparently decided to replace G Gabor Fodor, a fanatical Fidesz ideologist and propagandist. A personal anecdote came to mind. A friend of mine, whose opinion I trust, is a businessman, who is by upbringing sympathizes with conservatism and has good personal connections to Fidesz. He is an observant Catholic. He not so long ago told me that in his life he figures he met evil personified two times. Once he appeared in the form of a menacing Russian-Hungarian businessman who was in the media some years ago but now nobody remembers him and basically nothing can be found on him on the internet (and probably he was a KGB/GRU guy) and Arpad Habony. The meeting with Habony took place before 2010 when Habody was much less influential and basically unknown (my friend had no idea who he was at that time). This friend of… Read more »
That’s quite interesting because I know people in the Hungarian kendo community who have known Habony for decades, back when he played the sport. I asked one of them what Habony was like back then, and he also used the same word to describe him: evil.
Actually what he said about Habony was, “Mindig gonosz volt” – he’s always been evil. I was surprised to hear him use such strong language to describe his former teammate.
I am glad that the posts on corruption diverted attention from the annual Trianon ritual. I thank Eva for the excellent literature introduction to those apparently under educated in Hungarian literature of the period. Fortunately I was not there for much of the time when I might have learned more in classes. The first 24 pieces from the Ady collection that I was able to access briefly do not contain any reference to political corruption that I could find. Admittedly I did not read them very carefully. Yesterday I was provided by Ovika a link to a more than 600 page work by Seton-Watson as a citation for Hungarian. political corruption. I asked that the passages or chapters be highlighted because I am obviously not going to read 600 pages of the writers concerns about the nationality issues in Austria Hungary. As usual for Ovika, no response. As far as the Kadar regime is concerned the absence of literature on its corruption is more a product of its control over publications than the absence of corruption. The description of my contribution on this subject as “nonsense’ by Eva verges on ad hominem. Virtually no institution in Kadar’s Hungary was able… Read more »
If I understood Eva correctly, she never claimed that there was no corruption in the Kadar era, only that the corruption of Fidesz today cannot be derived from Kadar era corruption.
The Kadar era corruption was both qualitatively and quantitively different from the present system. There is always “corruption” (question is how to define it), even in Norway and in Switzerland, in itself the existence of it, doesn’t say anything.
Right where does it start and where does it end? If we hold a magnifying glass over it, friendliness could be considered a bribe.
But the corruption under Fidesz is outrageously public and state-legalized. That means that everyone outside Fidesz is in prison and has/get nothing. They can bribe with nothing but themselves. Do you know Goethe’s Faust.
Yes, exactly but Aida doesn’t want to hear it.
That is where we disagree. As evil, repressive, police states go towards the end of the 1980s the regime softened and deprived of Moscow support it handed over power to its nominees, MDF. Until the 2010 election the real power in the country rested in the ever weakening hands of the Communist Party Chairmen, mainly those heading up the Counties. ( under the old system foispan). Orban has finally wrested control from them. The consequences are disastrous. At the point of the nominal handover to the MDF etc in 1990 the essentials system remained as it was under Kadar. The mindset, the morality the standards were the same. What was small meat but nationwide Kadar regime corruption translated itself over twenty years to what we see now. My point is that this was achieved without any resistance from any citizen group, any organisation of state or any church. For example the rich rewards given to the nominally outgoing apparatchiks went without a murmur. The nation’s standards, values, morality were undermined by the Kadar regime. Corruption that the nation thought normal continued and escalated. I thought a regime change would bring about a boring country like Holland with the restoration of… Read more »
You have an erratic point of view … so I’ll take that sentence.
„The nation’s standards, values, morality were undermined by the Kadar regime. Corruption that the nation thought normal continued and escalated.“
„… undermined by the Kadar regime“ Aida there was nothing to undermine there was no standards there was no values there was no morality.
Compared to today, the Kardar era seems amateurish. In the past, you didn’t get the stones you paid bribes for, at worst. Now the state comes and tells you what to do or they take it all away, unless you unless you unless you kiss Orban’s ass. Now you don’t have to bribe yourself, the bribe comes in your house.
Don, Hungary emerged very slowly from a feudal state. Even now it is not clear how far they have advanced along that way. But in the past Hungarians were normally decent people. The suggestion they had no morality is just a bad point. I have looked at some sources today. In late 19 c and early to mid 20 c the rulers, mostly rich landowners of a traditional class ran the country. They gave the good jobs and positions to members of their own elite. ( protekcio) They ran the state, by and large the country areas were controlled by them through their own appointed officials. In the 20 century much of industry was Jewish owned. These people did not need to indulge in the tawdry business of bribes and backhanders and brown envelopes. The system was partially dismantled but only partially after WW2 once the Jews were killed. The masters of the country side became the senior communist party officials who excised power more or less as their predecessors pre war. Trading of apparatchik privileges became the currency of Kadar’s regime. Very similar to what was happening in the USSR. Mikszáth and Móricz wrote about their way of life.… Read more »
„In late 19 c and early to mid 20 c the rulers, mostly rich landowners of a traditional class ran the country. They gave the good jobs and positions to members of their own elite. ( protekcio) They ran the state, by and large the country areas were controlled by them through their own appointed officials.“ The way I was told it was a feudal system. „In the 20 century much of industry was Jewish owned. These people did not need to indulge in the tawdry business of bribes and backhanders and brown envelopes.“ Let’s leave the faith out of the game I think you are wrong here it would be completely illogical but no matter. „The system was partially dismantled but only partially after WW2 once the Jews were killed.“ You wrote the Jews weren’t involved, but now they are. And who the hell’s supposed to cut something down? Horthy the corrupted? „The masters of the country side became the senior communist party officials who excised power more or less as their predecessors pre war. Trading of apparatchik privileges became the currency of Kadar’s regime.“ Then Kadar has personally demanded that every… Read more »
Aida
You are totally off re “real power, …communists, ..Orban wrestled .. ” etc. bollocks. Many people eased nicely into the new system , eg. the ardent “socialist” youth L.Kövèr, now fascist journalist Bencsik, now minister S.Pintèr, many Fid talking heads, actually at one point there were more former communists in the second Orbàn gov than in the MSZP leadership.
You may alternatively refrain from commenting on something you (seem to) know little about.
Eva, I have no idea what the Fidesz mantra is since I do not access their propaganda output apart from the small number of their trolls here. Having said that, I do not understand your reference to a slippery slope. Neither do I appreciate the phrasing of “ I would not travel on in your place”. I think that certainly a real change occurred after 2010. It was one that is catastrophic for Hungarians and possibly for Europe. Orban, apart from his other defects trades on promoting the differences between people when he should seek to unite them. He is a populist who is a Putin asset like Trump and Johnson. If the apparatchiks had not been so successful in 1989 and in following years to save their place and power and to enhance their wealth a proper regime change would have taken place lead by people who wanted to and knew how to achieve it. If Kadar’s bent apparatchiks had been sidelined then we would not be where we are now. I hope we can continue civilised exchanges. There is no place for creating even the appearance of a threat. re Observer: the power of the County MSZP party… Read more »
I do hope that you realize that you are repeating the Fidesz mantra here and agree that the real change came only in 2010 and prior to it communists ruled Hungary. This is slippery slope I wouldn’t travel on in your place.
I love you Aida.
Your contribution is priceless.
I can see that you stayed in touch with reality.
You have got real life evidence, while others gain knowledge from books.
Real life trumps books.
Don K
The national psyche doesn’t change so quickly, there’s always continuity, habits, traditions, societal norms, etc.
What I noted about the Huns, starting with the writings of George Mikes (Mikes György) to my current experience , is that so many here feel entitled to lie and cheat and get truly offended when they are caught in those, eg. after being reminded that he cheated a counterpart, a small businessman exclaimed “but if he was so stupid… (to let himself being cheated).” Same psychological foundation as the “someone else’s fault”, little scruples no remorse.
One thing striking in the current country today is that under that incredible leadership what’s an honest working fellow to do when all around him he sees everybody who can’t help keeping their fingers out of the till or ripping others off. He must come to a conclusion that he is a sucker. It’s almost as if he has to make that his job. It’s creativity in the rip off. Eventually under all that everybody feels they have to play or you get run out of the game. And that is how ‘sh## rolls downhill’. And being in the rendorseg has to be an ironic situation. What Important crimes are they looking after in context of what’s occurring above them? ‘Crime stoppers’ really? Now if the country sat down and thought about that they might see that those being in charge of civil peace just might be looking for the wrong crooks as opposed to those who arguably wreak more havoc between the haves and have-nots. That’s what can be called getting down to ‘ambiguity’ in a job. And to note that when analysis gets down to ‘police work’ that is its state anyway and everywhere in… Read more »
Obs erver the letters I am writing for identification. Do you carry owls to Athens or did you say you would carry owls to Athens? If you think I’m underexposed, that says more about you than me.
The fundamental issue is that there is an unbelievable amount of FB engagament on Trianon.
Tons of articles, posts are being shared, actions (the “fire of belonging” lit all over the world etc. etc.) done, new FB profiles are made etc. — many by people who are otherwise not necessarily pro Fidesz.
To be honest, not even the COVID t its height could create such a level of engagement on FB.
Certainly, nothing, absolutely nothing the opposition could come up with in years could create that level of activity.
I follow the activities of Momentum politicians and their posts receive 29 likes (from the already converted) and then die out.
“Trianon” is again a Fidesz discourse into which the opposition stepped (which means it was gonna lose in this discourse anyway) needlessly because it has nothing to say, and certainly nothing about which people would care and would have anything to add.
The opposition is perennially unable to come up with topics, narratives, events about which ordinary people would think, fantasize, daydream, just spend time on.
So Trianon is just a reminder of this very sad fact.
“The opposition is perennially unable to come up with topics, narratives, events about which ordinary people would think, fantasize, daydream, just spend time on.”
By “ordinary people”, you, of course, mean the racist, homophobic, anti-Semitic, wife-beating low-lifes who are the fat dictator’s natural support base. You are quite right, why decent people and even politicians (the two terms are not mutually exclusive) should even attempt to “engage” with these planks of wood is beyond me.
They are a lost cause.
You can’t just dismiss 60-70% of the population because assuming that Hungary will hold free and un-rigged elections at some point in the future the then opposition will simply need their votes (at least some part of them). There is no other way, and the opposition must try to convince some of them. Giving up on them and writing them off is not an option, it’s just a very easy pretext for being simply lazy.
Secondly, their anti-semitism, wife-beating tendencies etc. is not innate but already the very result of the left’s (opposition’s) perennial failure to come up with a more humanistic and attractive narrative about the world and these people’s possible, better future in that world. The opposition is failing (failing them) every day.
Let’s just let this extra-terrestial allegation simmer for a while:
“Secondly, their anti-semitism, wife-beating tendencies etc. is not innate but already the very result of the left’s (opposition’s) perennial failure to come up with a more humanistic and attractive narrative about the world and these people’s possible, better future in that world. The opposition is failing (failing them) every day.”
Think about it – To which schools of thought can we commonly attribute this type of reversed rhetoric and unreal, negative political logic???
Right!
This comes straight out of the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook-chapter on “how to feign democratic leadership by shoving shit down people’s throats, while talking about amber waves of grain and silver-lined clouds”, instead of giving them free room to think and talk together – To actually listen and engage in face-to-face dialogue – Civil and productive debating is a waste of the mighty leaders’ time.
“there is an unbelievable amount of FB engagament on Trianon”
““Trianon” is again a Fidesz discourse into which the opposition stepped (which means it was gonna lose in this discourse anyway) needlessly”
Talk is cheap. What can Fidesz actually do about Trianon ? Start a war with the neighbours ?
Re: ‘What can Fidesz actually do about Trianon? The modern tinpots kiss the ground all the social networks are on. It enables them to control narratives and influence public opinion not only in their countries but throughout the world. The ‘old’ media such as television, radio and newspapers are impressive in their ‘reach’ of populations. But the social networks by themselves have increased to an exponential power of ‘share of voice’ on their user platforms. Their penetration in user populations is very high and messages get passed along quickly in the online universe. Whatever gets blabbed in there gets around. Compared to old media the ‘immediacy’ and ‘touching base’ through social network messaging is light years ahead in its power to influence and keep things ‘top of mind’ in the public eye and also to narrow its focus when it comes to generating and influencing opinion. These platforms feed news and opinion like most seem to want it now, quickly, timely and just getting the ‘net net’ of opinion through an army of writer-bots who seek to overtake and channel ‘conversations’ and make sure they convince in telling ‘the ‘story’. With Facebook, Twitter and Google, these… Read more »
wrfree, I agree with you re the influencers etc vs newspapers – but only partially.
The people now following the loonies on twitter, fb etc are the ones who used to read Bild, Blick, Bors, the Daily Heil … to name just a few of these “revolver papers” as we call them in Germany.
Imho it’s at least partially a result of (missing …) education – the political powers often are not interested in having intellectuals (latte sippers …) instead they prefer average joes or bunkó paraszt who are much easier to influence.
And another factor is the intellectual deficit produced by those Communist regimes which makes the Balkan (yes, including Hungary, or rather the whole Visegrad4) racist, anti-LGBT, homophobic, misogynic …
The list could go on.
A simple indicator for this is the power of religion – in the developed countries in the West only a few percent still believe in it, go to church etc.
I assume that you read only a few of his earliest writings. Take a better look.
“Aida,” with anonymity there cannot be “ad hominem,” only “ad nominem” — and the nomen is phony, the homo (or femina) unknown.
(Couldn’t resist the solecism for the logodaedaly: it should be “ad nomen”.)
Entertaining and enlightening stuff from Stevan.
Interesting tidbit about a former US citizen employee at the Hungarian embassy in the US.
“A new Trump appointee to the United States’ foreign aid agency has a history of online posts denouncing liberal democracy and has said that the country is in the clutches of a “homo-empire” that pushes a “tyrannical LGBT agenda.””
“Corrigan previously worked for the Hungarian Embassy in the United States and tweeted that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is “the shining champion of Western civilization,” Politico reported last year.”
https://www.propublica.org/article/new-trump-appointee-to-foreign-aid-agency-has-denounced-liberal-democracy-and-our-homo-empire
Yeah, well tidbit is expressed somewhat enthusiastically, I give a shoulder shrug. Stupidity knows no bounds … the imagination alone is too terrible. Orban has been killed by a rainbow and the whole world is watching. And if they didn’t die, they’re still alive today.
i guess this Corrigan idiot also consumes Russia Today or like, the “homo dominance” is a Russian panel used for W.Europe.
I doubt that Corrigan will be there for long.
The surprising thing – to me at least – is that the embassy directly hires politically active Americans, presumably in the hope that they will go on to work for the Administration in which case the Orban regime (and by extension Russia, let’s not forget) would have good inside contacts.
“Corruption has a long history in Hungary” implies that it is exclusive to our little paradise when of course it is the norm rather than the exception in most of central, eastern Europe and the Balkans (btw if you ever want to upset a Fideszer imply Hungary is “Balkan*).
I may be wrong but I don’t think any government/regime in this part of the world has fallen because of “corruption?
Sorry, cut off in my prime. People will whinge about political corruption of course but will then see nothing morally wrong bribing a doctor in order that he does not amputate the wrong limb.
Re: ‘Earlier , individuals tried to gain advantage, financial or political, in “micro” ways. Corruption today is on a “macro,” systemic scale, where the national wealth is being raided and the proceeds transferred to a few individuals’. On the three ‘c’s in the country today…. Corruption and its attendant crime rampant and the ‘cops’ more than likely fiddling in it. They have to be ‘on the take’. ‘Korrupcio!’ appears to be the bailiwick of “gentlemen-hoodlums’’ in suits or relaxed dress who see anything and everything as ‘banks’ to rob, pillage and get the ‘10 finger discount’ by hook, crook and pen. It’s evident they’ve moved from holding up palinka stores. Magyarorszag looks as if it has the big time ‘rackets’ going on. It doesn’t work unless people are in on it. Here’s Ray Chandler, the great crime fiction author who no doubt is known by the Magyar writers, commenting on corrupted relationships: ‘The strange psychological and spiritual kinship between the operations of big money business and the rackets. Same faces, same expressions , same manners…These boys all have good business fronts and very clever, although crooked, lawyers. Stop the lawyers and you stop the Syndicate, but… Read more »
I found an amusing and also important book on family name changes between 1800 and 1895. It is most instructive.
https://books.google.com/books?id=_GoUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA227&lpg=PA227&dq=stefka+Istvan&source=bl&ots=XaMEyA41Gy&sig=ACfU3U3Sok7vnJO3Kqym0tDhtNRRzlfV0Q&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjn-rL-k-vpAhXsUt8KHde_B604FBDoATAAegQIChAB#v=onepage&q=stefka%20Istvan&f=false
One of the earliest and most disgusting specimen was that of prime minister Gyula Andrássy’s chicanery. He, the first prime minister after the compromise, persuaded the newly united and constituted city of Budapest that they also need a representative allée, something like the Champs Elisée, an instructed the city to initiate planning. The plans were laid out and finalized when it became obvious that at the end of the planned road a private property of six parcels of land, lying across the road, are blocking it from reaching its teminal. Further inquiry revealed that the owner of those parcels is Andrássy himself and they must be purchased from him, if the project is ever to be realized. And the now ex-prime minister graciously agreed to sell the parcels at an exorbitant price to the city. Thus came the famous and spectacular Andrássy allée to be. (Budapesti Negyed, 1. Andrássy út, 1993 nyár)
Congratulations to Aida for expressing so clearly in this blog discussion his very plausible arguments concerning the continuity of the idea of corruption through the declining years of Hungarian Communism, through (what was euphemistically labelled “The Change” in) 1989 and through to the arrival of the Fidesz Curse in 2010.
Obviously the details of the corruption have changed over the years. What Aida describes of the Kadar times has a strong flavor of plausibility – mutual back-scratching if you like – but at least Kadar himself was recognized as a man of modest ambitions for himself.
What is important with the arrival of the cursed Hungarian Mafia in 2010 rules over by the Thief-in-Chief was the imposition of a finely-detailed plan as to how the state (ie, the people) could be robbed blind, constantly, systematically and above all, “legally”. The result has been the establishment of a massive gulf between rich and poor, foisted on the nation that now lives under a very real dictatorship, yes, managed with legalistic finesse, but a dictatorship.
Thank you
American Hungarian (@AmerikaiMagyar) Tweeted:
AHF’s Statement on 100th Anniversary of Trianon Treaty with Hungary published in Congressional Record and Washington Times.
More info on AHF website
https://t.co/6c7gBIuhhC
https://t.co/G4WnlxWdaf
https://t.co/77eDkjqYzq
https://twitter.com/AmerikaiMagyar/status/1268957538835476481?s=20
Financial Times
Viktor Orban keeps Trianon treaty bitterness alive, 100 years on
https://www.ft.com/content/6b785393-bdf8-4974-a17c-4017445fca1b?segmentid=acee4131-99c2-09d3-a635-873e61754ec6