Francis Berger
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Does Hungary's Pro-Family Agenda Contain a Metaphysical Dimension?

2/21/2019

2 Comments

 
Eleven days ago Hungary outlined a new seven step program it had created in an effort to halt its demographic decline by offering incentives to young people to marry and start families and by giving lifetime income tax exemptions to women who birth four or more children. The latest program adds to many existing schemes including initiatives such as housing grants, low interest loans, tax credits, and increased workplace family support.

Whether or not these Hungarian initiatives bear fruit remains to be seen, but one thing is certain – at a purely material level, the current Hungarian government understands that the country’s future rests entirely on the stability and fertility of its families. Hungary realizes strong families must be encouraged and supported, and mass immigration from other regions of the world must be discouraged and opposed if the small country Hungarians call home is to be preserved.

Both Orbán and the Global Establishment opposing him are acutely aware of the importance of family and its role in social stability. Both sides also recognize that cultures and societies that do not endorse the primacy of family and child rearing eventually fail and collapse. In his essay, The Patriarchal Family in History, English-Catholic historian Christopher Dawson outlines historical examples of this phenomenon:

A civilization like that of China, in which the patriarchal family remained the cornerstone of society and the foundation of religion and ethics, has preserved its cultural traditions for more than 2,000 years without losing its vitality. In the classical cultures of the Mediterranean world, however, this was not the case.

Here the patriarchal family failed to adapt itself to the urban conditions of the Hellenistic civilization, and consequently the whole culture lost its stability. Conditions of life both in the Greek city state and in the Roman Empire favoured the man without a family who could devote his whole energies to the duties and pleasures of public life.

Late marriages and small families became the rule, and men satisfied their sexual instincts by homosexuality or by relations with slaves and prostitutes. This aversion to marriage and the deliberate restriction of the family by the practice of infanticide and abortion was undoubtedly the main cause of the decline of ancient Greece, as Polybius pointed out in the second century B.C.[5]

And the same factors were equally powerful in the society of the Empire, where the citizen class even in the provinces was extraordinarily sterile and was recruited not by natural increase, but by the constant introduction of alien elements, above all from the servile class. Thus the ancient world lost its roots alike in the family and in the land and became prematurely withered . . . 

If, however, questions of population should give rise to war in the future, there can be no doubt that it is nations with wide possessions and a dwindling population who will be most likely to provoke an attack. But it is much more likely that the process will be a peaceful one. The peoples who allow the natural bases of society to be destroyed by the artificial conditions of the new urban civilization will gradually disappear and their place will be taken by those populations which live under simpler conditions and preserve the traditional forms of the family.


Orbán and the Global Establishment both recognize the symptoms of societal collapse Dawson notes above. Orbán and Hungary are working to prevent the manifestation of the physical collapse Dawson describes while the Leftist politicians of the EU and the West are actively endeavoring to bring it about.

As crucial as the material implications of family are for a culture and society, they pale in comparison to the spiritual significance of the family. I am certain the EU Leftists understand this thoroughly, which explains their vehement opposition to Orbán and his initiatives.

How important are the spiritual/metaphysical dimensions of family?

According to William Arkle, family marks the foundation upon which all spiritual growth and learning is built. The following is an excerpt from Letter from a Father, which Arkle writes from God’s viewpoint 

One of the most important ways I have chosen for you to learn what is vital for your understanding is to find yourself a part of a family situation on earth, for here you are able to go through the experience in one single lifetime, and with unbroken continuity, the experience of being a child, a mature individual and a parent.

In this situation, if you will only learn to pay close attention to it, are all the mysteries of the universe that matter to you.

If you take the trouble to stand apart and observe closely all the relationships that exist in your family situations, you will be able to observe as completely as you will how the problems of life arise, why they arise and how they are solved.

The family situation is a very special gift to you and one day you will be surprised that you took it so for granted.


Whether Orbán, his government, and other pro-family governments within the EU comprehend the metaphysical dimension of family is debatable, but the actions these governments have taken reveal at least a subconscious understanding that family is about more than just numbers.

Conversely, the Establishment is well aware of the metaphysical significance of family, which explains why they work so hard to destroy it. 
2 Comments
Bruce Charlton
2/22/2019 18:10:58

This is certainly good news.

Having said that, it is vital that such policies are *driven* by a Christian revival - because (as far as I know) purely secular policies to 'incentivise' fertility have not worked in the past (eg in France at various times, or in Germany under National Socialism).

Reply
Francis Berger
2/22/2019 20:01:42

I couldn't agree with you more - and therein lies the rub, so to speak.

Hungary is a nominally Christian country at best, and most Hungarians are far more driven by material concerns than they are by spiritual ones. The initiatives the government has implemented have created the potential for a revival; nothing more.

And Orbán himself is an interesting character. He speaks boldly about the need to defend Christian culture in Hungary and Europe, and has taken decisive actions in an attempt to do this, but I am always wary of public figures who wave the Christian flag (I have been fooled too many times in the past).

Perhaps I am in the same sort of place you were when Brexit occurred - that is, I see the potential for a revival and awakening, but I am far from convinced that any sort of revival or awakening will actually take place.

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