Viktor Orban: WW3 is inevitable, and how Hungary plans to stay out of it

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This is longish, but is, as Orban always is, blunt, factual and of great importance in terms of Western geopolitics. The EU is clearly the enemy of nation-states and personal liberty, and while Orban has always talked about the EU as problematic and in need of reform, he takes a different tack in this speech to the Free University in Hungary

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

4 Replies to “Viktor Orban: WW3 is inevitable, and how Hungary plans to stay out of it”

  1. The other day while speaking with a friend I tried to explain a feature of my Hungarian upbringing, but could not find the correct words.

    Orbán helps here. He describes a Hungarian as having a certain duty.

    My father had a slightly different approach. When I was a boy and we were discussing a subject, issue or problem, and I stated my position substandardly, my father would at times say, “No, we’re smarter than that.”

    What did this mean, exactly, and why did he say this? The intention of the answer, and the effect, was that I raise my game.

    I’m not sure what other Hungarians experienced during their childhoods, because I was brought up partially outside the language and the country, with both seemingly critical to being successfully Hungarian. I challenge this viewpoint, however, because I was also raised fully within the Hungarian culture and attitude, based on the will of a father.

    You Hungarians who say that one cannot be Hungarian without having the language make a good point, but do not then claim as your own some member of your far-flung diaspora once he distinguishes himself, be he rich or famous or successful because he is very clever. You know that you do this.

    When he emigrated to the new world my father embraced it with both arms. While it was Canada he landed in, he was American in spirit. Back then there was not much difference in attitudes, especially for poor European immigrants. All he knew was that, finally, there were no encumbrances between work and success. And so work he did.

    The English language that he learned surpassed that of many native borns. In fact, he became a millionaire in part by exploiting errors in language used in engineers’ specifications. A missed comma or incorrect word could change the meaning of a sentence or a phrase. On this basis he challenged the designing engineer. He won enough times that engineering companies blackballed him, much to his delight.

    Before landing in Canada he landed in Sweden. When the Soviet tanks appeared at one end of the Eastern Hungarian street on which he lived, he and a buddy decided they would exit Hungary from the other end of the street. At that time he was in his second year of medical school.

    He answered a tiny advertisement in his local newspaper. The Swedish government sought forestry workers. Only a few weeks after starting this work did he sink his axe into his foot. This was a blessing in disguise. While spending the next month recuperating he became more than operative in Swedish. The Swedes took notice, realizing there was better use for this young man than cutting down trees. Soon he was translating between his Swedish employer and German, Hungarian, Russian and Slovak workers. After five years he decided to leave, he said, because Sweden was too socialist.

    The world is full of brilliant people. The world is not full of brilliant people having the will to wring every ounce of their animal intelligence and abilities out of themselves. It is often the father’s job to set his son or daughter off on this course.

    Such was the basis of the lie my father told me, and which brings me to the expression that escaped me while conversing with my friend.

    Being Hungarian meant we were convinced we were in some way unique. This was drilled into my siblings and I. It was usually done subtly, through historical references and by citing the accomplishments of Hungarians. This was the specialness we were supposed to strive to live up to, whether we were special, or not. It was the seed of a self-fullfilling prophecy. It was a trick meant to drive us to overcome our averageness.

    Without the work component of the equation there is likely nothing much extraordinary to be found in very many talented people, so I rephrase: the world is full of brilliant failures.

    I am left with the luxury of being Hungarian when I feel like it. When a Hungarian tells me I am not Hungarian I enjoy telling them good, keep your ridiculous language, your arcane history, your mercurial personalities and your quick vicious tempers–you can have it all. I know what I am.

    As my father always said, none of it matters because it is all about attitude. The only perplexing aspect of the Hungarian trick he perpetrated is that it has, in variations, most certainly been copied by Hungarian parents for a millenia, and counting. Orbán does it in every speech.

    This is an awfully long time for people to be sucked into thinking they are something they are not, which may not be so different from convincing a young person they are, in fact, something that they are. This must be what makes Olympic-level coaches Olympic-level coaches.