Francis Berger
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Hungary’s Seemingly Eternal Tightrope Walk; Will It Succeed This Time, or Will There Be Another Tumble into the Abyss?

2/15/2019

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​The bulk of Hungary’s 1100 year existence as a nation in various forms could be summarized as a tightrope walk. Situated in the heart of Central Europe, the Magyar homeland has often served as a sort of crossroads and dividing line, and much of the nation’s history could be summarized as little more than a precarious balancing act punctuated by tragic missteps and misfortunes that resulted in rather spectacular falls into an unforgiving abyss. Though the country recovered from these falls in the past, the recoveries usually amounted to nothing more than being put back on the tightrope again. In many ways, that is where Hungary finds itself again today – out on the line, its eyes firmly on the rope stretched before it as it tightly grips its balancing pole and cautiously, yet defiantly, takes careful steps forward in the hope of reaching the other side.

I usually do not delve too deeply into the world of politics, but my four years of living in Hungary has inspired me to consider the spiritual/cultural/metaphysical implications of the actions this small country in the heart of Europe has taken to openly oppose the sacred pillars of the Global Establishment, and whether these actions truly do reflect deeper spiritual/cultural/metaphysical forces at play or not.

The attitudes and actions of Hungary’s current government led by Viktor Orbán clearly oppose the many objectives and aims the Global Establishment has set and is implementing around the world. This is most apparent in Hungary’s resistance to many of the key Establishment tenets such as mass immigration, diversity, anti-Christianity, gender politics, the toppling of the so-called patriarchy, and so forth.

Conversely, the Orbán government has not displayed its resistance solely by declaring what it is against, but by also declaring what it supports. Chief among these are the desire to preserve a homogeneous culture and people, the desire to support and strengthen families, the desire to tackle demographic decline through an increased fertility rate rather than mass migration, and the desire to maintain Christian values as the bedrock of European civilization and culture. It goes without saying that all of this has made Orbán and, by extension, Hungary, a pariah in the eyes of the Global Establishment.

Here is a brief and rather limited list of some of the actions Hungary has taken in opposition to some Global Establishment goals:
  • Mass migration: Orbán has, on countless occasions, explicitly declared that he will not allow Hungary to become a nation of immigrants. He has warned of the dangers of establishing what he terms parallel societies within a country’s borders. He ordered the construction of a fence on Hungary’s southern border, an action which has helped stem the flow of migrants arriving into Europe by land. Recently, the government has imposed taxes and restrictions on foreign and domestic NGOs that aid and assist the cause of illegal mass migration.
  • Gender politics: A few months ago, the Hungarian government declared it would no longer fund gender studies programs operating in Hungarian universities. Citing a lack of utility in the education these programs offered, the Hungarian government also stated, quite frankly, that gender studies and similar university programs were, in fact, poisonous to society and culture. Central European University, an eminent Citadel of Darkness founded and funded by none other than George Soros himself, recently announced it would close shop and leave the country due to unrelenting government pressure.  
  • Demographic decline: Rejecting the Global Establishment’s call to offset demographic decline with mass migration, Hungary has begun heavily investing in social schemes and programs designed to increase the domestic fertility rate. Orbán has clearly stated he wishes to solve Hungary’s demographic decline through increased domestic births rather than increased immigration from other nations. Some incentives the government has implemented include grants and accessible low-interest housing loans for couples who commit to having three or more children, and lifetime income tax exemptions for women who bear more than four children.
  • Family: Hungary does not recognize same sex marriages and supports the traditional family model. As in the case of child birth, the government has begun providing financial incentives to encourage young people to marry and start families.
  • Christianity: The Hungarian government openly supports Christianity and the maintenance of Christian culture, which is under terminal threat in Europe from the twin forces of liberalism and Muslim migration. Hungary has also openly supported the plight of persecuted Christians around the world.
  • Media: The Orbán government has taken measures against what it deems subversive media channels and outlets that do little more than spout toxic, politically-correct diatribes. This has rendered much of what constitutes domestic media firmly within the government’s sphere of control.
Orbán’s government has taken many other actions in the four years I have lived here, but for all intents and purposes, the list above is sufficient to prove my point that Hungary is clearly not abiding by the dictates the Global Establishment has issued for countries in the West.

​The response of the Establishment has thus far been both clearly predictable and surprisingly muted. In addition to the usual media tar-and-feathering smear campaigns that cite Orbán and Hungary as xenophobic, fascist, dictatorial, undemocratic, totalitarian, regressive, racist, sexist, and oppressive, the only other tangible steps the Establishment has taken against Hungary thus far is the triggering of Article 7 in the European Union, a motion which decidedly contains much more bark than bite.

And this is where we get back to the eternal tightrope walk. Unlike Great Britain, which will likely detach itself from the EU in some manner or other in the near future, there have been no notable calls to leave the EU within Hungary. Personally, I find this troubling, but I can understand why the majority of my fellow citizens and the government see no benefit to leaving the EU at the moment. The benefits Hungary enjoys are almost exclusively material in nature, but after having deprived of material benefits for more than half-a-century, I cannot be too quick to condemn those who wish to continue to reap the financial benefits the EU apparently brings to the country even though I know material benefits often come with a metaphysical price tag.

Orbán is confident that he will somehow be able to alter the face of the EU and bring about meaningful and positive change from within. He is betting that the populations within other EU countries have seen the example he and other eastern European leaders have shown, and that these populations will turn out en-masse and swing the vote away from the progressive, Leftist bureaucrats currently in entrenched in power within the vast Citadels of Darkness and Towers of Babel that epitomize the EU. I must admit, I admire his confidence, but I fear he may be setting up Hungary for another fall from the tightrope, albeit inadvertently and unintentionally.

Orbán was a young political activist when he witnessed the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989/1990. During those days, weeks, and months, he saw firsthand the immense influence a small country can have on the global stage in the face of insurmountable odds. When Hungary threw open a segment of its border during the Paneuropean Picnic in 1989, it quickly precipitated the collapse of communism in all of eastern Europe shortly afterward. I feel Orbán is hoping for a similar turn of events in the upcoming European Parliamentary elections in May. On the surface it is a noble goal, but at the risk of being pessimistic, I doubt it will work even if Orbán ends up getting the election results he desires.

Attempts to remold a bureaucracy as inherently evil and corrupt, and as utterly demon-controlled as the EU not only seem futile, but smack of wrong thinking and foolhardiness. At its core, it’s the approach of the alchemist – the vain attempt to turn lead into gold. Though I generally believe much of what Orbán has stood for to be Good, I have deep misgivings about Hungary’s current balancing act. If I were in Orbán’s position, I would simply lay the plans for Hungary’s eventual departure from the EU. For all I know, he could be doing that at the moment. Whatever the case, remaining inside the EU, regardless of the political direction it takes after the May elections, seems like an extremely bad idea to me.

In my darker moments, I feel everything I am seeing now is little more than a political dog and pony show – that Orbán might actually be cooperating with the Establishment at much deeper levels than is readily apparent. However, when I examine the sum total of all the actions Hungary has taken against the Establishment thus far, I simply cannot accept this to be the case. This is where I begin considering the possible spiritual/metaphysical dimensions of what is currently taking place.

Will Hungary finally reach the other side and be able to step off its eternal tightrope and inspire Europe to follow it as was the case in 1989, or will Hungary tumble into the abyss with the rest of Europe, perhaps never to recover again?

The coming months and years will determine that. Maybe it’s something we should all be keeping an eye on.

Note: Though I have presented a rather sweepingly positive view of Orbán and the Hungarian government in this post, I am fully aware of their many deficiencies, shortcomings, corruptions, and missteps. It goes without saying that I consider Orbán and his policies to be net Good, especially when compared to what is happening in countries like France and Germany under the leadership of figures like Macron and Merkel respectively, but I am not oblivious to Orbán’s faults and the simple fact that he is, after all is said and done, a politician. 

​What I have attempted to do here, probably quite poorly, is present or approach current political developments in Hungary and the EU from a spiritual/cultural/metaphysical perspective. Seen in this light, Orbán at least seems to offer a glimmer of hope. Time will tell if this hope truly has a basis in or manages to manifest in Reality in any meaningful way.  
  
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