Hungary is a Central European country that the author describes as having undergone significant transformation since the 1989 transition from a socialist state to a parliamentary democracy. Under the leadership of Viktor Orbán since 2010, Hungary has been reshaped into a political framework centered on manufactured enemies and domestic control. The author notes that the same forces that destroyed Afghanistan are now operating against this second home, which once welcomed him as a young student in 1981.
The Hungary of the 1980s, during the late Kádár period, was a socialist state with its own constraints but one that extended real educational opportunities to young people from countries like Afghanistan. This Hungary no longer exists. The country went through the 1989 transition and emerged as a parliamentary democracy, but under the long Orbán period, it was remade into something neither the socialist Hungary of 1981 nor the liberal democratic Hungary of the 1990s would recognize.
The author returned to Hungary in 2020 and observed a country whose government had spent a decade constructing a political framework organized around manufactured enemies—Brussels bureaucrats, George Soros, migrants, Muslims, and the cosmopolitan elite. The civic environment had been reshaped to channel political energy toward these manufactured enemies and away from the actual sources of harm to ordinary Hungarians. The country that had once welcomed the author would not welcome him today, if he were arriving for the first time as the young Afghan he had been in 1981.
The author’s standing to describe these changes is greater because he knew the earlier versions of this country across three political incarnations and because he chose to come back to it despite knowing what it had become. Hungary, as the author describes it, is now under threat from the same forces that destroyed Afghanistan, and the author hopes that Hungarian citizens will recognize this and take action before it is too late.
Related: masud.md, capture.md, orban.md
See Also
masud.md capture.md orban.md legitimacy-through-exception.md legitimacy-through-omission.md legitimacy-through-delegation.md legitimacy-through-exceptionalism.md legitimacy-through-contradiction.md operational-signature.md projection.md selective-definition.md constructed-catastrophe.md consistent-principle.md collective-humanity.md doubled-guilt.md intervention.md foreign-policy.md network.md capture.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md religion-war.md religion-warfare.md religion.md religion-political.md religion-state.md [[concepts/religion-war.md