The right-wing pursues a model-creating policy, it does not want to meet Western expectations. We don't feel defeated. The left, on the other hand, is stuck in the pattern-following political behavior of the '90s. Written by Ervin Nagy.
After the system change, hurray optimism took over, we are going to the west - we naively thought - where everything is beautiful and good. In a material, spiritual and, of course, moral sense as well. Although the West viewed the countries east of the former Iron Curtain, including Hungary, as conquered territories to be colonized, we were still blinded by the arrival of the long-desired freedom. We didn't even notice and a large part of the country's economy became the victim of a violent market grab.
But in the meantime, the West has also changed. The Cold War came to an end, and together with the euphoria of victory came pride and a sense of superiority, while Europe's "immune system" began to weaken completely. Precisely in the age when globalism intensified both culturally and economically.
The euphoria of victory, the never-before-seen prosperity, and the Western societies sickened by hubris became the ultimate victims of Americanism, which has been intensifying since the Second World War.
The continent lost its cultural identity, along with its sovereignty. It was necessary for Western Europe to become America's henchman in a political sense as well. And we have integrated into this Europe.
Moreover, we wanted to imitate everything we saw there. Mostly the envied freedom. We wanted to realize without criticism, which was not even then the kind of freedom we really wanted. For historical reasons, Hungarians think differently about freedom than people living in the western part of Europe. For us, freedom is actually a communal experience. The autonomy of the individual is only fully experienced and valued only when our community, in this case our nation, is also sovereign.
Today, our opinion on freedom is one of the fault lines between the so-called right and left parties in Hungary. Even now, the left-liberal political, cultural and economic elite formed from post-communists and liberals still thinks that exemplary behavior is the right thing to do. The reason may be the compulsion to comply, financial compensation, political involvement, or simple naivety. And no matter how many times they are beaten by two-thirds of the right wing, which ends the pattern-following or observes with a critical eye, they still insist on exalting the West.
Since 2010, the right-wing party has clearly pursued a model-creating policy, it does not want to meet Western expectations. We don't feel defeated. In fact, we fought for freedom ourselves. The left, on the other hand, is stuck in the pattern-following political behavior of the '90s.
Just when the West (actually the United States, which controls Western Europe) has lost its influence in world politics and is trying to moralize with all kinds of identity politics supplements. Multicultural society, LGBTQ rights, vegan movement (which is an ideologically based radical lifestyle), woke, and so on…
All this does not mean that we should make a sharp choice between East and West. (For the time being, there is no such sharp Cold War.) Moreover, the emerging global South is now here, which projects a multipolar world before us.
We have to stand on the only good side of history, on our own side, and mutually cooperate on matters (not nebulous ideologies) with those middle and great powers who do not limit our sovereignty and whose interest is that we also develop.
It sounds simple, but it's hard to do. Especially now, when the winds of a new cold war have hit our continent.
