Our Last Ten Days of Normality

Ten days, that is how long we Hungarians are left of our unassuming, unappreciated but much envied normality. Ten days left of what we have dreamed of during communism, what we have worked and fought for in the last 35 years since we have rid ourselves of the yoke of Marxist insanity, lies and national servitude. Precious days, hours that we must cherish, until everything changes after April 12.

We are still going about our lives, our work and the reality that we have got used to. The simple way of life that we took for granted. Yet soon everything is about to change in a radical way, the way it did in other nations West and East of us. And many of us are woefully unprepared for what is to come. Some of us in Hungary actually do sense that an uncontrollable whirlwind is about to lift our national life up in the air, like it did in L. Frank Baum’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, when a tornado lifts Dorothy and her dog Toto from their Kansas farm and carries them to the Land of Oz. But instead of preparing themselves for the inevitable journey, most Hungarians still prefer to lock themselves in the cacophony of their own ideological bubble or simply hold on to the illusion that things are going to be the same as before.

Photo: Fortepan

Except they will not. Some want change, change at any expense, even though they have no clear idea about where they want to arrive on the wings of the coming, self-induced whirlwind, and do not care much about the fact that they will have zero control over how long this is going to last and what this radical change is going to bring. Still, others believe that they can keep things the way they have always been by putting their faith in those who advocate continuity and self-determination.

The irony is, should change come in the form of a new government, things are actually going to happen in a more predictable pattern than if those should stay at the helm of the country, who have been leading us in the past decade and a half. There is ample precedent in the recent past to guide us through our possible future. In the short perspective, we only need to look at Poland to see what is going to happen to our society and political sphere. A punitive political transformation in which an anti-sovereigntist leadership gradually rips up the emotional and moral ties that hold a nation together. A forced takeover over our national media, a legal crusade against political and ideological opponents, a pseudo-enlightened crusade against our Christian ethos and an attack against the notion of national interest, as something of a relic of a selfish collective past.

Photo: Fortepan

In the long term, we only need to take a look at the ruins of our greatest, most magnificent European nations – England, Germany, Spain or France. They are gone. And yet what remains of them wants to infect the remaining healthy core of our Central European space with a narcissistic form of self-destruction with a missionary zeal. With some success, one must add. Nearly half of our citizens now seem to be perfectly content with sacrificing our boring, unremarkable normality in order to join the ongoing orgy of European suicidal pan-solidarity and omni-tolerance.

Should the current leadership hold on to power, the great unknown is about to unfold against the pesky stubborn Hungarians. The gloves are off, the pretense of a European moral order is about to be lifted. The countless scenarios that circulate in Brussels, Kyiv, Warsaw or Berlin should conservatives pull off another victory are all taken from the pages of the manual of a total war against national sovereignty. Stripping of EU voting rights, Iran-like sanctions, expulsion from the EU, economic warfare, etc. Even the threat of military intervention from our emboldened neighbors drunk on impunity vis á vis their off-the-scale corruption, human rights violations, totalitarian government and their perceived vicarious war on behalf of European peace and values. Nothing is off the table. And the more totalitarian the rest of Europe turns, the more they are infuriated by this little spec of goulash-normality on the map of our continent.

Photo: Fortepan

At the same time, our capital, Budapest, is increasingly becoming a foreign object in the heart of our nation, a place where our aging civilization’s auto-immune sickness has consumed the ability of so many of our fellow citizens to simply feel shame. All that is left is envy, envy that has no regard for self-preservation either. Our capital’s youth is being weaponized against our history and national identity, and instead of nurturing the seeds of their own future in their hearts, many are absorbing the poison of false grievances of the past spoon fed to them by our exceptionally perfidious media and activist networks. And although visitors walking our capital’s safe and orderly streets almost unequivocally sing the praise of this little safe-haven of sanity in the heart of a disintegrating Europe, those of us who live here understand that we are palpably drifting in a dangerous direction.

Photo: Fortepan

All that remains then are ten days of a cold and unremarkable spring. This is all that we are left to enjoy, and enjoy we must. Let us remember these few precious days, a time of effortless Europeanness, unspoiled peace and a life without fear. No doubt, in the gloriously decadent West they still have better houses, drive nicer cars, have way bigger salaries, but still we have something that they do not: a future. For ten days, it is still a possibility, an option.

But in the end we are Hungarians, a nation with a mission that all others in Europe seem to have forfeited. One that is open and offered to all, but only we seem to have accepted with our typical, completely puzzling confidence. In the coming two weeks, those of us who understand the inevitable, will enjoy every single day and hour as if it was our last one. Hence this Easter will be like no other in our recent history. One through which we will carry the suffering of fallen European nations within the Passion story, and in which we Hungarians will create a fragile but authentic space for hope and faith in our European, Christian resurrection.