Seeing the new frantic ideas of the Budapest city government, we can only blink in despair: if they really want to make space for barrel speakers and street musicians, we can really only hold our heads and hope that nothing will come of the idea.
The Budapest city government has recently announced new surprising measures: in addition to providing additional buoys for cyclists to ensure safe traffic on main roads, thereby radically reducing their capacity, making traffic in the capital impossible, stages suitable for performances (also in markets), London's Hyde Park Like Park Corner, it provides places for soapbox speakers to give speeches and a piano for those who want to play the piano.
Zsolt Wintermantel, the head of the Fidesz-KDNP faction of the Capital City Municipality, was shocked and called on Gergely Karácsony, who proposed these things, to end his rampage and resign immediately.
The city administration, citing a lack of funds, seems to have the money for the above.
The soapbox speakers will probably be their people, they will also play the pieces and maybe their people will play the piano for us ordinary citizens of Budapest.
(The children, for example, would be very happy if Gergely Karácsony played Boci, boci tarka for them)
It will be a great experience! But these amazing ideas come as no surprise from the capital's city administration, which is actually controlled by Ferenc Gyurcsány.
Just read Saul Alinsky's 12 rules and you'll understand everything right away.
1. Not only the power you really have, but also the power the enemy thinks you have. There are two main sources of power: money and people. Those who have no money must build power from their bodies.
2. Never be outside the circle of experience of your people. It will only result in confusion, fear and backsliding.
3. Get outside the enemy's range of experience whenever possible. Look for ways to increase his uncertainty and nervousness.
4. Force the enemy to play by their own rules. If your rule is to reply to every email, send 30,000 emails. You can cut it out with this, because no one can meet all the rules you set yourself.
5. Ridicule is man's most effective weapon. There is no defense. Irrational. Infuriating. It can also serve as a decisive pressure point to force the opponent to make concessions.
6. The good tactics your people enjoy. They will do it without wooing. They will do their job and suggest even better ones. In this sense, radical activists are no different from other human beings. We all avoid joyless activities, but enjoy things that work and bring results.
7. The tactic you use for too long becomes a burden. Never become boring. Even radical activists get bored.
8. Keep the pressure on. Don't let go. Keep trying new things to keep your opponent on edge. As soon as the opponent recognizes a tactic, cut him in the groin with something new. Attack, attack, attack from all directions, never giving the faltering organization a chance to rest, regroup, get back on its feet and rethink its strategy.
9. The threat is often scarier than the thing itself. Imagination and ego can often envision far more negative consequences than any activist. And what is perceived as reality becomes so. Large organizations always prepare for the worst-case scenario, which may be infinitely far from the activist's vision. The result will be that organizations will spend enormous amounts of energy and time dealing with the most dire consequences. This easily poisons their thinking and demoralizes them.
10. If you push a negative hard enough, it will eventually become a positive. If the other side uses violence, it is easy to sway public opinion to your side because it sympathizes with the weaker side.
11. The price of a successful attack is the constructive alternative. Never let your opponent score a point because they will find that you have no solution to the problem. Old wisdom: if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda and a strategy to get a seat at the negotiating table. In any case, they must have a compromise solution.
12. Choose the target, isolate it, name it and polarize it. Cut him off from his support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Attack people, not institutions, because people are more vulnerable than institutions.
Balázs Hámory