Why does Hungarian society look the other way when it comes to violence?
"According to the victims, it was an open secret that he manipulated the teenage girls to the extreme and then physically exploited them. According to them, several young girls may have been raped by the coach, who taught children in two counties. The former students who were abused said that the man crippled them for life," writes the Index about the karate coach from Jászberény, who was accidentally recorded by the camera of the Szolnok City Administration while brutally kicking a boy entrusted to his care at the summer camp.
In the article, victims who were abused by the coach 10-20 years ago, partners, students report - now suddenly "interrupting each other's words" - about the man's violence.
And the question that does not leave me alone is what would have happened if this recording had not been made and had not come to light? In other words: would the case have been made public even if there happened to be no camera in that adventure park?
Why do we look away?
The case of the karate coach is the tip of the iceberg and is not even unique in terms of the tacit consent of the community. Examples can even be cited from the recent past, when it turned out that the environment was indeed very aware of what was going on "before their eyes" - it was an open secret, they said. Consensual social disregard is the common point in countless different types of abuse, be it violence within the family, at school or in children's homes.
In the case of Zsolt Bite, the management of the institution also knew exactly what kind of business the pedagogic assistant, who defined himself as an ephebophile, but was actually a simple homosexual pedophile, did, yet they did nothing until the case broke out.
In the case of the murder in Albertirsa, there was similar knowledge, but a thirty-three-year-old mother and her two-and-a-half-year-old daughter lost their lives despite the fact that the neighbors and relatives knew about the regular abuse - and even the local civil guard.
This is not a political issue, but a social one
Nothing changes as long as you allow your son, your friend, your acquaintance to beat his women one after the other, until you seduce the girl who pushes her boundaries, and until you sit at your table with someone who has hurt others.
Nothing changes as long as indifference reigns, and violence only bothers you when you're being hit.
Nothing changes as long as society blames the victim in many cases. Why did he stay, why didn't he do this or that differently.
Politics can help us live better, but not prettier. It's up to us.
It's time to clear up the open secrets!
Featured Image: Screenshot
