OPINION

‘The Best Defence of MCC is the Intellectual Content Created There’ — An Open Letter to the Editorial Board of The Guardian

OPINION

‘The Best Defence of MCC is the Intellectual Content Created There’ — An Open Letter to the Editorial Board of The Guardian

Graduates of the postgraduate programmes of MCC taking a selfie at the graduation ceremony in Budapest on 28 May 2022.

Szilárd Koszticsák/MTI

The editors of The Guardian must have overlooked it, so Hungarian Conservative is now publishing the response of Danube Institute visiting fellow, alumnus of the Budapest Fellowship Program Michael O’Shea to Bence Szechenyi’s now infamous defamatory op-ed.

Michael O’Shea, a Danube Institute visiting fellow, alumnus of the Budapest Fellowship Program, sponsored by the Hungary Foundation and the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), submitted a rebuttal to The Guardian after it published former Budapest Fellow Bence X Szechenyi’s defamatory column about MCC earlier this month.

Since he received no reply, Hungarian Conservative is now sharing the comments in their entirety. (We have already published a response to the Bence Szechenyi op-ed by senior fellow at the Center for Fundamental Rights (Alapjogokért Központ) Kelli Buzzard, a former researcher at the Department of Social Sciences and History at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, which you can read here.) We, however, agree with Mr Michael O’Shea that ‘Of course, the best defence of MCC is the intellectual content created by its scholars, researchers, and students. I direct any interested parties, first and foremost, in that direction.’

I completed the same fellowship this author [Bence X Szechenyi] describes in this article. Like virtually everyone who has been affiliated with MCC in any way, I consider it delusional.

During my time there, MCC opened its doors to reporters from outlets like The New York Times and Vice News, which were obviously going to produce hostile content. This author wrote a couple of pieces [during his fellowship] praising himself; the idea that anyone would take the trouble to stifle him is laughable.

Panic attacks are keeping him up at night? My colleagues, friends, and I can’t take that assertion seriously. If he experienced any such thing, it was probably a result of publicly insulting his fellowship colleagues with whom he spent ten months in close company. That he stooped to such a tactic in this article says everything about his perspective and character.

If you’re inclined to dislike Hungary, you can find intelligent analysis supporting your view. This isn’t it.

At a time when public debate is increasingly polarized and superficial, Hungarian Conservative remains committed to depth, intellectual honesty, and independent conservative thought.

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