As a nation, Hungary is already intricately incorporated into the System. The country is part of the UN, the EU, and many other international organizations. Its economy is heavily dependent on a slew of multinational corporations in a variety of industries. In exchange for EU infrastructure funds, Hungary has essentially sold its domestic market to a host of multinational conglomerates. Though the country has retained its own currency – the forint – the EU and its unified euro currency heavily influence Hungary’s finances. These factors and many more not mentioned show Hungary is very much a part of the System.
Now Hungary may be part of the System, but under the leadership of Viktor Orbán it has often resisted and rejected the Agenda. For example, Orban’s government forced the International Monetary Fund to close its Budapest office in 2013, and it has not sought additional financial arrangements from the IMF since. Orban’s government also rejects open borders and mass migration, refuses to recognize same-sex unions as marriage, supports family-friendly policies, and aims to increase domestic fertility to above replacement levels by providing young families and couples with financial and housing subsidies. Concisely, Orbán’s Hungary, is physically part of the System, but it is clearly not fully committed to the System’s Agenda. Of course, the System cannot abide Hungary’s lack of commitment to the Agenda because this lack of commitment reveals the System has not succeeded in fully incorporating Hungary into its fold.
Predictably, Orbán and his government have been the focal point of repeated political and media attack campaigns over the past decade. The attack campaigns focus almost exclusively on the Agenda items Orbán has rejected – primarily mass migration, human rights, and LGBT rights. Political bodies such as the European Union and domestic and international NGOs such as Amnesty International have been at the forefront of these attacks. However, the drive to incorporate Orbán’s Hungary fully into the System does not end with political entities and NGOs, but extends to multinational “for-profit” corporations as well.
Case in point – a prominent soft drink manufacturer recently launched an ad campaign promoting gay acceptance in Hungary. Now many are under the assumption that companies like soft drink manufacturers are merely businesses involved solely in business activities such as profit maximization, market expansion, product promotion, and so on. Though true to an extent, a cursory visit to the homepage of any large soft drink manufacturer, or any large multinational business for that matter, quickly reveals that corporations are interested in far more than expanding their businesses. Simply put, contemporary “for profit” corporations also operate as Agenda pushers and can often be found in the front lines of what many today refer to as the “culture war.”
The soft drink manufacturer pushing the LGBT Agenda item in Hungary met fierce resistance from members of Orbán’s government who immediately called for a boycott of the manufacturer’s products. This “controversy” appeared in nearly all Western media outlets which vociferously defended the soft drink manufacturer’s right to promote human rights and coldly condemned the Orbán government for its hatred and bigotry. The soft drink manufacturer doubled down on its investment and issued even more posters and placards, which motivated even more resistance from the Hungarian government. Then, to everyone’s seeming surprise, the soft drink manufacturer mysteriously relented and withdrew its ads, which led to another series of scathing articles in the Western press.
Members of Orbán’s government were quick to congratulate themselves for having won a battle, but anyone familiar with the demonic strategy of “two steps forward, one step back” will recognize the underlying strategy the System has employed in its desire to enforce its Agenda upon Hungary. It may appear that a battle has been won, but in my mind, the System is merely reassessing the battlefield and gathering new troops before launching its next assault. Who or what leads the next assault is anyone’s guess, but it will most certainly be another corporation, profit-driven or otherwise, because the war will not end until Orbán and his government agree to Hungary’s complete incorporation into the System, which includes full assimilation into the Agenda. Anything less is simply unthinkable.