Hungarian Conservative

‘Many Christians who hold modernity culpable for the demise of the church and dispersion of the Christian flock join forces with political conservatism, seeing in it their natural political ally and representative, while conservative politicians look upon these groups—and many of their institutional leaders, bishops, evangelists, theologians—as reliable, strong, and loyal supporters.’

Perhaps the best-known and one of the most beautiful buildings in Ferenciek tere (Square of the Franciscans) in Budapest, the Párisi Passage, has been recently renovated and its original beauty restored. The history of the magnificent edifice dates back to the early 19th century.

‘The American left is seeking what they call ‘Social democracy’ and claim it is not ‘democratic socialism’, but everyone knows it is indeed the same ideology. This socialist ideology reflects that of Rousseau’s, who had an abstract idea of society’s restoration towards man’s ‘natural equality,’ but this idea is fundamentally flawed. As Edmund Burke, the prominent British political thinker, wrote in response: “their abstract perfection is their practical defect”.’

This new generation renewed Hungarian politics not only in the use of language but also in the nature of governance. It was open about its value choices and did not accept that politics was merely the dispassionate administration of affairs. After decades of humiliation, it wanted to once again raise the Hungarian nation to the heights that its thousand-year history destined it for.

A short story of a group of desperate young Hungarians who in 1956, disillusioned with socialism, overpowered the passengers and the secret agent on a plane, successfully flew it to Germany, and the leaders of whom eventually became members of the US military.

In the third and fourth decades of the 21st century, national–conservative forces will have a chance to end the left-liberal cultural hegemony that has been dominating for a hundred years now. This is where the natural alliance between right-wing party politics and the national intelligentsia takes on historic significance.

According to Thomas Molnar, intellectualism is only a brief flash between the religious and technological society. More dangerous than its waning light is its ‘thunder’, i.e. the unspoken problem of the Century, which is revealed unmistakably only after the lightning.

Although we clearly cannot consider László Németh a conservative thinker in the ‘classical’ sense, we can still regard him as an interesting writer. He is worthy of our attention especially with regard to his critique of technocracy. In fact, he expressed valuable insights regarding the dominance of technical rationality, but also in many areas of culture, therefore his works can serve as valuable food for thought for conservatives who are willing to expand their horizons in new directions.

‘Those who oppose the Woke tide must recognize that the revolution they face is a many-headed hydra, driven and enabled by a multitude of factors beyond the political. Ultimately its deepest roots are in the social atomization, cultural breakdown, and the void of spiritual meaninglessness produced by the nihilism of Western modernity.’

While Hungarian national memory of communism is far from being consolidated, the tendency among young people to view their ancestors’ actions under a totalitarian regime with empathy while at the same time to strongly reject communism as a political ideology is a promising development.

During this period, both sides tried to quote the writings of the Budapest-born founder of political Zionism, Theodore Herzl, and both sides seemed to find their own version of Herzl that fit their arguments.

Poorly educated people with disgusting habits, yet still the wealthiest in the societies that suffered under and because of their rule – how can the most unworthy be elevated to such positions of power under state socialism or communism?

In this article we further investigate the persistence of inequalities under state socialism to demonstrate that it is not only impossible to eradicate inequality, but that inequality is a phenomenon far too complex for any single ideology to single-handedly address. 

In his self-criticism after the Revolution, one of the leading politicians of state-socialist Hungary admitted that they were interested in only having the ‘right number of women’ in positions of responsibility, instead of genuinely working on women’s equality in representation.

What is behind the nostalgia for state socialism in East-Central Europe?