2011-08-20

Right ascendant in Hungary

EU Remains Silent as Hungary Veers Off Course

Hungary's conservative government won a big majority in 2010 and the pants crapping has begun. This article in Der Spiegel starts by making one think of Nazism, with a group of gypsies "forced" to work. But read just a little further, and the policy they are operating under is that social welfare benefits will only be paid to people who work and work is voluntary.

The 40 gypsies from Gyöngyöspata, who don't even use the more acceptable term Roma to describe themselves, have been assigned the job of clearing hibiscus bushes and undergrowth for four months. They are among 300,000 Hungarians who will soon be performing "community" work under a new law, which dictates that anyone who is out of work for more than 90 days in a row forfeits the right to social welfare and membership in the social insurance system.

Are "forced labor camps" being created here, in the middle of the European Union, as the Hungarian daily newspaper Népszava wrote? Are unemployed people from remote villages being housed in worker camps on large construction sites? No one has to work against his will, but everyone who does show up for work is paid the legal minimum wage, says Karoly Papp, the state secretary in the Interior Ministry in charge of the program.
The right-wing can get quite hyperbolic, but they can't hold a candle to the left once it gets worked up. Things take a socionomic turn when it comes to punishing the politicians who led the country and the world into this mess.
Péter Medgyessy, Ferenc Gyurcsány and Gordon Bajnai, the three Social Democratic prime ministers of the last decade, all face the threat of being put on trial. There has been little public outcry, partly because many voters believe that they were lied to and robbed by the "leftists." A speech that Gyurcsány gave in 2006, which was later released to the press, and in which he confessed to have not been telling the electorate the truth about the tense economic situation, as well as dubious real estate deals and the fact that a national bankruptcy was only averted with the help of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union, weigh heavily on the legacy of the former socialist governing party.

Prosecutors are even looking into whether they can charge the former premiers with the "political crime" of incurring government debt, which is not considered a statutory offence today. Orbán and his party are fighting untiringly on this and other fronts. They seek to justify their mission to radically restructure the state with what they call a revolution in the voting booths: In April 2010, the Fidesz Party and its ally, the Christian Democratic People's Party (KDNP), won more than two-thirds of the seats in parliament.
Prosecuting the wrong doers is a popular during declines in social mood. Now we can see this in the political dimension and this is a textbook example of what I mean when I've said that social mood creates the conditions for change, but the facts on the ground dictate the events. A truly right-wing government is in power and it isn't going to target it's allies, it will target its enemies. The media in Europe is dominated by left-wing ideology, so it portrays this as a cout d'etat, but punishing politicians to satisfy negative social mood is exactly the same thing as targeting businessmen. Unless there's a clear plan for fascism, this is just a man bites dog story, where a right-wing has captured a government and is not behaving like the right-wing of the left.
Much has happened since then in the Goulash archipelago ruled by Orbán. Fidesz loyalists were given long-term posts in the corridors of power, including the presidency, the office of the chief prosecutor and the audit court, as well as top positions in cultural organizations. The powers of the constitutional court and the budget council were curtailed, the ministry of culture was eliminated, and consolidation is underway in the state media, the film industry and universities.

All of this produces jobs for men like Daniel Papp. As a media expert and the co-founder of the radical right-wing Jobbik Pary, he was long known only to the initiated. But in April they catapulted the pale 32-year-old to the position of editor-in-chief of the news office at the new MTVA media fund. The MTVA is the umbrella organization covering the formerly independent state radio and television stations, as well as the MTI news agency.
The left-wing did exactly the same thing, consolidating their gains in the 1960s. This is why Hungary is interesting, if we see the major decline in social mood from a multi-century as predicted by Prechter, this is very likely to happen in most countries. The "left" became ascendant in the 1700s with the Enlightenment and advanced in power throughout the rise in social mood. It has surged leftward at times with the Communists and created monstrous hybrids such as the Nazis, and pushed towards the right with Thatcher and Reagan. There were also some last gaps from the old right in places such as Franco's Spain, but even Pinochet's dictatorship was liberal, implementing free-market form of capitalism.

Is this current shift a counter-revolution, where the right-wing of the liberal movement knock the left-wing out of power for a generation or more, or is this the first shot of what might be termed reactionary politics? If the former, we will see the new government behave, for Americans, like heavy handed Republicans. If the latter, we would expect to see the media-university-government left-wing power alliance broken and a rise of new (old) institutions such as the Church. Note that this does not need to be a political, for example in the United States, if welfare is permanently cut, the churches will fill the role on a voluntary basis, whereas in Europe there are still state sponsored churches, so this may take a more official role. Currently the left uses government power and the finances of the state to fund the universities and many left-wing organizations. Therefore, for the right to defeat them, they can either take control of the government and the finances, or simply reduce the role of government and cut spending. The left can be replaced or it can be starved; I expect in countries with more individual liberty, power will return to the people. Where government has always been strong, the right will take over the organs of left-wing power.
It isn't necessary to smell fascism behind every bush, says Heller. "The worst thing is that the checks and balances are being eliminated in this country, and that the rule of the yes-men has begun." In fact, she adds, now dissidents are even being treated as criminals.

The Hungarian authorities are investigating Heller and some of her philosopher friends, known as the "Heller gang," for alleged embezzlement of research funds. But Heller, sitting in her apartment high above Guttenberg Square, laughs off the accusation.

What is most troubling to Heller, who survived both the horrific regime of the Hungarian version of the Nazi Party and the communists, is the disquieting feeling that the clique now running Hungary does so without "responsibility" -- and without a sense of the "danger that violence could erupt." "Orbán is extremely sure of himself," says Heller. "It's a typical characteristic of dictators."
Just as the rise of liberalism created the United States and the Soviet Union, so the new changing politics will create great advancements and great setbacks for humanity. History does not progress, it cycles, and if the 2000s were the peak of a super-cycle beginning in the early 1700s (From Wikipedia: If the Grand Supercycle theory is correct then the magnitude of the current recession should be of greater magnitude than the Great Depression, and possibly of greater magnitude than the severe economic recession from the 1720s–1770s that terminated the previous Grand Supercycle of the Renaissance.) then we will see major shifts in politics, philosophy, art, family and culture.

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