Budapest 1938

10/23/2020

Below is a great Traveltalks newsreel from 1938 featuring Budapest. You Tube appears to be "suggesting" the video to everyone who lives in Hungary (I haven't searched for anything related to Hungary on You Tube for over a year, yet was suggested this video all the same).

Most of the comments for the video are run-of-the-mill You Tube comments, but a few note the ominous timing of the suggestion. For example:

"The saddest thing for me is that one seems aware of the hell and misery that would befall Budapest in a few years time."
"That's why this video was featured! We're going to be crying, too. A couple of years (or months) from now, we will face misery and hell, too."
"I had the same thought I was watching this."

I can't help but agree to a certain extent, but I would argue our 1938 is already behind us. It ended somewhere in March or April. The whole world is well into 1939 now, closing in fast on 1940.

Note added: The analogy I draw at the end is an extremely loose one. What we are currently experiencing defies historical comparisons.

4 Comments

Bookslinger

10/24/2020 00:21:39

I have heard it said: "It's not 1939, it's 1913."

Ferenc Berger

10/24/2020 18:14:04

@ Bookslinger - That works for me as well -- especially when you consider the former was just a continuation of the latter.

John Fitzgerald link

10/24/2020 15:11:56

YouTube comments are remarkably revealing. People don't hold back there. They hold up a mirror to our times.

Pick any pop classic from the '80s and have a read of the comments. The sadness and sense of mourning for days gone by is raw and palpable. It's where nostalgia meets nihilism. Not so much 'look back in anger' as 'look back in despair.' The ultimate vacuity of pop culture and the drift and meaninglessness evidenced by so many YT comentrers says it all to me about the wreteched state of the West. It also shines a light perhaps on why so many have given up on all those things they were supposed to have loved - live music, theatre, etc - without so much as a whimper. We're supposed to be a 'progressive' society yet there's no progress at all - no looking forward - no optimism, joy or hope. All this becomes brutally clear 'under the line' on YouTube.

One notable contrast to this, however, is the comments section under Jordan Petersen's videos. There's passion and rawness there too - but of a completely different order - tales of redemption, fighting back against the odds, inspiration, and real, genuine hope. Whatever one thinks of JP (I for one am glad to see him back) the comments are generally speaking very heartening to read.

I'll have a watch of that Budapest video. Always wanted to go. Nearest I got was Prague, where I read at the wedding of a friend who has since blanked me - on political grounds, I think - for four years.

I wonder why YT are suggesting the video to Hungarians. Maybe, as is said about the Economist, they're trying to hint at the future - or lack of it - before it happens?

Nice post.

Francis Berger

10/24/2020 18:23:48

@ John - Thanks for the comment. Though the thought did cross my mind, I don't think the video suggestion contains a sinister element. All the same, I think it's interesting that some commenters are making that connection.

In any case, I highly recommend the video -- it provides a great glimpse into the past (the calm before the storm, if you will).

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Budapest 1938

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