Can Orban fulfill his promise to transform Hungary? Is it really possible to reshape the state with laws, regulatory governance and an obedient “honeycomb”? Or can you just “get it done” temporarily?
Of course he can do it, because he converted it. He created a new political system, not a liberal democracy, not a constitutional democracy, but a new system. It doesn't matter what you call it, a hybrid regime, an authoritarian regime, or an unconstitutional regime, it doesn't matter. He also gave it a name, once saying that it was illiberal, not democratic in today's sense, and another time that it was Christian. At first it was only Christian, but later it became a Christian democracy. He also felt that he had to work out this system conceptually and theoretically, but he was wrong in the way he did so. But what he said about transforming the country is true. He completely transformed it. This system is completely different from what existed between 1990 and 2010. It is not democratic. He has already transformed this system. We can list all the elements of how to enumerate all independent institutions. But we've said that a hundred times. There is nothing new under the sun, we are still moving in a direction in which the remnants of the rule of law are being eroded more and more every day. We are entering into a new system that is heading towards dictatorship.
Currently, before our eyes, education is divided into two categories: primary education and education intended for the rest, which provides a minimum of knowledge. They are already doing this at the trainer level, as the National University of Public Service, which provides training for public service professions, is launching teacher training courses in Hungarian language and history. A new cultural law is now being prepared, which – if accepted – will bring complete centralization and unification to cultural life. In the health sector, those who want to recover are increasingly directed to private health care, and if someone cannot pay for it, they die. What kind of Hungary does all this project?
Dictatorship of course, or let's say arbitrariness, tyranny. We can also say that he created the rule of the aristocracy. An upper class is already being formed here, and there will be lower classes in addition to it. As the philosopher Andras Lancy, head of the Millennium Challenge Corporation's European Center for Political Philosophy, has said, theft is the essence of the system, the capitalist class, the new elite, must be formed. This is actually a new concept of society, and it is not Christian at all, because we are not talking about a political system, but rather about a society that is not Christian at all. The point is that everyone is equal, but here equal opportunities are also being taken away from people. If I can go back to the classics for a moment: Plato said that there are three types of regimes: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. Monarchy is when one man rules, aristocracy is when a group rules, and democracy is when the people rule. Aristotle said that there are actually these three types of order, but all three have a good version and a bad version. In the Middle Ages, and then also in the modern era, this is how everyone divided up individual arrangements and systems. If we look at it on this basis, our country is actually moving towards the creation of an aristocracy. In other words, one group rules. Of course, there is a pyramid-like hierarchy within the group, but the end result is an elite education here, at MCC, at the National University of Public Service, in health care. What is right for them is not for others. So they really divide the community into the first ten thousand, who are now more than ten thousand, and the rest. In fact, Plato would call this social order an aristocracy. However, behind the word aristocracy we imagine a kind of nobility, where culture and traditions exist. This current Hungarian version is not like that. Not a hereditary aristocracy. In better countries, nobility persists even for centuries. In addition, there is natural aristocracy. This matter developed in America, where the founding fathers were in the eighteenth century. At the end of the twentieth century, they still believed that sooner or later a certain type of class would emerge, which would naturally occupy the better positions, because they were more qualified, more moral, more intelligent, and more educated. In our country, on the contrary, an aristocracy is created by violent state means, which, however, is not chosen in such a way that the noblest, the fittest, the most moral are chosen. In fact, it is chosen inversely, and the most immoral and unscrupulous characters end up where we actually see them. They are uneducated and lazy. This is what is so strange. In addition, this is indoctrinated and taught under influence, which shows that a spirit is conveyed that is not aristocratic at all, but arrogant, domineering and tyrannical. It will be an upstart aristocracy, exaggerated and bad. A society arises that can be described as class society, but it can also be described from a Marxist and Platonic point of view. Although an aristocracy is formed, it is not the aristocracy of the fittest, but the aristocracy of the most unscrupulous and the greatest criminals. The criminal aristocracy emerges from a criminal state.
That's why this country had a culture. Those who work in the sectors concerned see where we are headed, but only a part of them is protesting. The Hungarian intellectuals, or whatever we have called them so far, prefer silence. but why?
There are several reasons for this. One is that it is easier to go to school, you will be a thousand times better off financially, and you will be a millionaire in no time. In Hungarian: It is worth studying and it is easy. The student also learns a lot of nonsense in MCC, he knows it is nonsense, but with this he can get into foreign universities, the best places, and even though he knows it is nonsense, it is useful to say it two or three times. It's a good little strategy, because becoming a doctor is much harder than becoming a diplomat in the MCC.
Can our previous culture simply turn away from us?
Optimists say no. But that's not what matters. They do not mind a talented poet writing in a newspaper he founded himself, but no one reads it. He does it quietly. They take over the institutions, they take over the opportunities for further education, and that's the problem. And you can only get there by humiliating yourself, I mean by compromising. A compromise must be reached. But they are not major concessions. It is enough to say, “God alone, and Muhammad is the Messenger of God.” If you say this, everything will be forgotten. With that one sentence, you can go in, and if someone says this, from now on, it's “our dog's puppy.” it is easy. Who can't say this easy sentence? At least he doesn't really believe in it. Prince Geza did not believe in Christianity either, but he knew that it was necessary to preserve the state that was taking shape at that time. That's why he pretended to be a Christian, either he believed or he didn't believe, no, but his son Sint Emre completely believed him.
How long can it continue like this?
It could go on forever. But now there are movements, and things have moved from within as well. The fact that there are now more contradictions than agreement is usually the case. Inside the Fidesz camp, the situation is brewing and stirring, and everything else can come from it. It is also possible that nothing will happen, but there is also the possibility that there will be movement. That wouldn't be as good, but it would still be better than what we have now. It's not the opposition that does this, it's society that moves, and anything can happen as a result. There is a case.
(You can read part one here.)
