Perfect Hungarian syndrome

We can get a perfect picture of the political situation in Hungary from an article⁽¹⁾ with title Cipolla, written by László Bartus⁽²⁾.

Unfortunately, it is in Hungarian. Indeed, a part of Hungarian people ("the democrats") are exactly aware of what is going on in Hungary. And they let it. They don't want to do anything. They are just like the Three wise monkeys⁽³⁾: they cover their eyes, they cover their ears and they cover their mouth. A few public intellectuals write excellent articles or some books, more or less in soft-style. Sometimes in exclusive clubs they give some lectures on the danger of threatening democracy. That's all. They are slacktivists, in fact. "The democrats" are waiting for a miracle, maybe.

The other part of Hungarians is in coma, hypnotized by far-right team of Viktor Orbán.They don't hear, don't see, don't speak anything else but what Viktor Orbán, the boss wants to. And they do what he wants to.

So it's more useful to write these things in English, letting them be known by the world.

Bartus described the whole Hungarian syndrome precisely showing how it has been formed for years.

Thanks to a native Hungarian blogger, Eva S. Balogh living in English language area, the most important parts of the original article can be read in English⁽⁴⁾, too. Some pieces of it:

Bartus claims that in the last two weeks or so events took place in Hungary which point to the reasons for the nation's depravity and for the country's loss of competitiveness. Who is responsible for that? "Viktor Orbán and his propaganda machine" that for years has been repeating that the former government stole the Hungarian people's last penny, that the budget consisted of falsified data, that there was no need for reforms, that austerity was unnecessary, and that it was perfectly all right to have a deficit as high as 7.5%. At the same time Orbán systematically destroyed the ability of the government to govern, ruined people's faith in democracy, questioned the legitimacy of the constitution. By now he has managed to destroy the whole institutional underpinning of democracy.

According to Bartus, "one man built up a propaganda machine, a structure that he alone controls, and created a sect that believes in his omnipotence. He uses patriotism to manipulate, to stigmatize and exclude his political opponents. He managed to make intelligent people become brainless admirers, obedient and fearful subjects.... He managed to turn people against each other, make people hate each other, and taught his people to hate the outside world.... He created sheep and obedient parrots around himself who without the slightest sign of thinking keep repeating what they are told.... With his destructive speeches he poisoned the whole nation. For the sake of his own power he managed to destroy the res publica, let loose the extremists, and create a civil war within the country. He created a situation in which peace and quiet is an impossibility as long as Viktor Orbán is the prime minister.... Hungary has lost at least 25-30 years because it produced a man named Viktor Orbán from Felcsút."

But we recommend to read the whole English language article with additions of Eva S. Balogh.
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Sources, informations:
(1) http://www.nepszava.com/index.php?topic=4455&page=4696
(2) Amerikai-Magyar Népszava Szabadság: a Hungarian-language weekly published in New York, http://www.nepszava.com . It's editor-in-chief László Bartus was a well-known Hungarian journalist who also published several books before moving to the United States.
(3) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_wise_monkeys
(4) http://esbalogh.typepad.com/hungarianspectrum/2010/09/an-opinion-on-the-current-hungarian-situation.html