For some reason, I don't feel like rejoicing that I was right, I told you in advance. For the time being, the scandal that Péter Nádas could not receive a prestigious German award only because he is a "privileged white man who is loved by journalists" is causing minor waves.
I said in advance that the woke madness is not a distant problem, it affects us too, since everything from the erasure of the culture of "dead white people" to the gender quota is (also) about us. They want to exterminate what made us Europeans what we are. According to the logic of woke, if you cut off someone's leg, you will be taller. Murderous logic, they are one step away from the Jacobin version.
With the Conchita Wurst phenomenon, we could still pretend that it is a product of the entertainment industry, such is the pop industry. But this is high culture, the top of it. For this reason, the afterlife of the news is more interesting.
Endre Balogh wrote it on prae.hu, it was shared by Nyáry and co. (although Nyáry slyly mixed the alt-right into it, let the mud be splashed there too, relativized the crime, so that the woke commando wouldn't wipe it out), this was witnessed by the Index , and the rest shared a silent silence. I understand that there is a campaign, it is more important which leader of the list does not go where to debate, but this silence is telling.
• The Writers' Association does not issue a resolution.
• Not even a Ballib opinion leader writes publicism with blood and fire.
• The cannons of independent and objective media are not booming.
• There are no petitions, the otherwise delicate and vehement intellectuals are not lining up to sign.
• No boycott organization, no demonstrations, no rush to report to Brussels.
• There is nothing. The otherwise loud elite is silent.
However, the situation is simple: when awarding a prestigious literary award, the decision was not made on an aesthetic basis, but on a political basis in Germany. This was made public by the jury members, who also indicated in their article reviewed by Balogh: all of this, in addition to literature and culture, ultimately endangers political morality as well.
From the position of infallible judges of political morality, the Orbán government is accused in opposition (so-called progressive intellectual) circles of making decisions on state awards on a political basis (I just want to know why they are surprised by this, anyway). In other words, if a politician decides on a political basis, it is a dictatorship, if a professional jury decides on a political basis, that is fine, there is nothing to see.
However, the decision of the professional jury betrays everything you think about art, its independence and autonomy, we think. By listening, you accept this betrayal. And - not incidentally - you betray Péter Nádas with your silence.
Péter Nádas was betrayed in Germany, and you betrayed him here as well.
This is the problem. That there is no thought in this silence, only cowardice. And yet the firing squad is reloading. We are being decimated, and Nádas' example shows that the commanders of the firing squad include you in this "we".
The author is the general director of the Public Collection Center of the Hungarian National Museum.
Featured image: Kossuth Prize-winning writer Péter Nádas on the terrace of Jelenkor Kiadó's Budapest office on April 4, 2017. Photo: Zoltán Balogh / MTI
