“He needs time, and the job he is walking into carries a weight that is difficult to overstate. To be Hungary’s Prime Minister at this moment is not a position of glamour or power in any ordinary sense. It is an inheritance of damage, and the measure of the man will be what he does with it.”
That reminds me of Zelensky. Ukraine’s battle is much more deadly of course but both leaders have huge fights on their hands with no guarantees. It feels like I am fighting every day in America. We are all engaged in this battle. Your feelings are distinctly tied to Hungary but you are not alone. I continue to be wary as I know many others do.
What Hungary has recovered is possibility and opportunity. However, I realize that while that allows people to put their footsteps on a path that was previously closed to them, the journey ahead is long, will have many trials, and will not always be easy. At times, the wind will be at your back. Other times, you may find the path steep, and storms will hinder your progress. I hope Hungarians will remember to keep moving forward even when times are challenging. You have the possibility of a better future before you. The world is by your side, and many are prepared to offer assistance as you move forward. You are also an inspiration to many who are still hoping to take the same path and make the journey with you. We celebrate each day as a possibility and an opportunity.
Per usual, your words are resonating very loudly as I prepare myself to leave, even knowing that I may not be able to, safely, or otherwise. My hope is that I can write similar words about the country I was born in from afar once democracy returns to America.
I love your writing and all the words!! Don't stop writing as you do because you give us so much to think about and embrace. Others outside of Hungary need to understand what the people have endured under an authoritarian monster like Orban. Don't delete one word of your writing as it is sorely needed to explain what Hungarians have been through.
Really well thought through self-reflection of yourself and your nation.
Going to be interesting... Magyar will have to act like a dictator breaking down the media, breaking down the Orban 'deep-state', keep cutting the rot, redraw the constitutional limits, and then start rebuilding.
That first phase will be interesting, flashy, speedy. Can he really usurp power, kill the rot, and then relinquish. Most I imagine must happen in the first year.
You are right in remembering that Peter Magyar is only one man, and he may well stumble along the way. I watched Barack Obama, on balance a good president, work hard for eight years, but he fell back from regularly engaging with people in certain parts of the country. Magyar must not lean too heavily on the elitists who may advise him to step back from his demonstrated commitment to the common man. I am watching several principled men and women in the United States, some of whom are wrestling with what terms to call small groups of people and which "experts" to consult about the path forward. The smart ones will follow Tisza's basic groundwork: Start visiting, listening and connecting with people in all parts of the country-and stay away from sloganeering,
This is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing this. I was especially struck by "What matters more than Magyar are habits. A press that holds power to account regardless of whose power it is. Citizens who vote not only when the country is on fire but in the local elections, the municipal ones, the ones that feel like paperwork until the day they do not. The ones that build the habit. Courts that function without fear. An opposition that is permitted to exist, to organise, to lose and return. These are not glamorous things. They do not make for election-night television. But they are the connective tissue of a democracy, and Orbán spent sixteen years cutting through them, thread by thread.” You’re absolutely right. That should be the hope for all of us who aspire to to have a functioning democracy. We hope that ordinary people show up for ordinary votes on ordinary topics about ordinary governance.
One of my biggest fears about the U.S. is that the vast majority of Americans do not understand (and will not understand) the enormity of what is happening until there is very personal, sizable, sustained pain. And what worries me, too, is how authoritarianism now seems to be an internationally coordinated effort among the world’s techbros and wealthy elites. But I will say that Hungary’s election and defeat of Orban has broken that mythology that authoritarians always want to promote - that they will last forever and that their rule is inevitable. And kudos to all of Hungary for proving to this the world.
I am so glad you wrote the whole story of what you have held inside you with no edits. Your eloquence about what has been endured as well as the promise of what may be is incredibly important. I will share it as widely as I can. Thank you for sharing your deepest fears and hopes. There are so many of us worldwide that want your country to be a fully sustainable democracy . ❤️🙏🇭🇺🇨🇦
I think the part I liked the most was: "The most important thing Magyar can do is not make himself indispensable but make himself unnecessary, to govern so that Hungary, in four or eight years, does not need to find another Magyar to save it."
When the Blue majority selects its next leader, whether it's AOC, Bernie Sanders, J B Pritzker, or any of a dozen others who might inspire the public between now and 2028, that public leader needs to keep this goal in mind. You might have captured with that one sentence why movements rise and fall, and the reason why what lasts longer endures. The goal to make oneself unnecessary through building our institutions to survive our stepping down is exactly what we as people need to demand of our leaders.
I also liked some of the other ideas you brought up... I don't think that defensive pessimism is just a Hungarian thing. It might be a universal human thing, but it's particularly strong in just about every Central and Eastern European country. The reaction to it might differ between nations - Russians have learned to angrily accept their own pessimistic views as reality, while Poles rebel against it. Ukrainians fight for their lives against the darkness, while Bulgarians seem like they are still stuck in the habit of looking for the next authoritarian hero. I would suppose that reaction helps quantify the strength of a culture, but it's not really linear. Either way, it's a lot to analyze.
I do appreciate your essay. I see myself in it. As a citizen of the USA, I see the challenges ahead, the years necessary to recover from the damage being done by the fascist regime running my country. More than anything, I am grateful to the Hungarian people inside AND outside of the country, who stayed strong and built a united front to rid their country from a despot. I hope those days are coming in my country. I am very happy for you all.
“He needs time, and the job he is walking into carries a weight that is difficult to overstate. To be Hungary’s Prime Minister at this moment is not a position of glamour or power in any ordinary sense. It is an inheritance of damage, and the measure of the man will be what he does with it.”
That reminds me of Zelensky. Ukraine’s battle is much more deadly of course but both leaders have huge fights on their hands with no guarantees. It feels like I am fighting every day in America. We are all engaged in this battle. Your feelings are distinctly tied to Hungary but you are not alone. I continue to be wary as I know many others do.
What Hungary has recovered is possibility and opportunity. However, I realize that while that allows people to put their footsteps on a path that was previously closed to them, the journey ahead is long, will have many trials, and will not always be easy. At times, the wind will be at your back. Other times, you may find the path steep, and storms will hinder your progress. I hope Hungarians will remember to keep moving forward even when times are challenging. You have the possibility of a better future before you. The world is by your side, and many are prepared to offer assistance as you move forward. You are also an inspiration to many who are still hoping to take the same path and make the journey with you. We celebrate each day as a possibility and an opportunity.
Per usual, your words are resonating very loudly as I prepare myself to leave, even knowing that I may not be able to, safely, or otherwise. My hope is that I can write similar words about the country I was born in from afar once democracy returns to America.
I love your writing and all the words!! Don't stop writing as you do because you give us so much to think about and embrace. Others outside of Hungary need to understand what the people have endured under an authoritarian monster like Orban. Don't delete one word of your writing as it is sorely needed to explain what Hungarians have been through.
Really well thought through self-reflection of yourself and your nation.
Going to be interesting... Magyar will have to act like a dictator breaking down the media, breaking down the Orban 'deep-state', keep cutting the rot, redraw the constitutional limits, and then start rebuilding.
That first phase will be interesting, flashy, speedy. Can he really usurp power, kill the rot, and then relinquish. Most I imagine must happen in the first year.
You are right in remembering that Peter Magyar is only one man, and he may well stumble along the way. I watched Barack Obama, on balance a good president, work hard for eight years, but he fell back from regularly engaging with people in certain parts of the country. Magyar must not lean too heavily on the elitists who may advise him to step back from his demonstrated commitment to the common man. I am watching several principled men and women in the United States, some of whom are wrestling with what terms to call small groups of people and which "experts" to consult about the path forward. The smart ones will follow Tisza's basic groundwork: Start visiting, listening and connecting with people in all parts of the country-and stay away from sloganeering,
This is beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing this. I was especially struck by "What matters more than Magyar are habits. A press that holds power to account regardless of whose power it is. Citizens who vote not only when the country is on fire but in the local elections, the municipal ones, the ones that feel like paperwork until the day they do not. The ones that build the habit. Courts that function without fear. An opposition that is permitted to exist, to organise, to lose and return. These are not glamorous things. They do not make for election-night television. But they are the connective tissue of a democracy, and Orbán spent sixteen years cutting through them, thread by thread.” You’re absolutely right. That should be the hope for all of us who aspire to to have a functioning democracy. We hope that ordinary people show up for ordinary votes on ordinary topics about ordinary governance.
One of my biggest fears about the U.S. is that the vast majority of Americans do not understand (and will not understand) the enormity of what is happening until there is very personal, sizable, sustained pain. And what worries me, too, is how authoritarianism now seems to be an internationally coordinated effort among the world’s techbros and wealthy elites. But I will say that Hungary’s election and defeat of Orban has broken that mythology that authoritarians always want to promote - that they will last forever and that their rule is inevitable. And kudos to all of Hungary for proving to this the world.
I am so glad you wrote the whole story of what you have held inside you with no edits. Your eloquence about what has been endured as well as the promise of what may be is incredibly important. I will share it as widely as I can. Thank you for sharing your deepest fears and hopes. There are so many of us worldwide that want your country to be a fully sustainable democracy . ❤️🙏🇭🇺🇨🇦
I think the part I liked the most was: "The most important thing Magyar can do is not make himself indispensable but make himself unnecessary, to govern so that Hungary, in four or eight years, does not need to find another Magyar to save it."
When the Blue majority selects its next leader, whether it's AOC, Bernie Sanders, J B Pritzker, or any of a dozen others who might inspire the public between now and 2028, that public leader needs to keep this goal in mind. You might have captured with that one sentence why movements rise and fall, and the reason why what lasts longer endures. The goal to make oneself unnecessary through building our institutions to survive our stepping down is exactly what we as people need to demand of our leaders.
I also liked some of the other ideas you brought up... I don't think that defensive pessimism is just a Hungarian thing. It might be a universal human thing, but it's particularly strong in just about every Central and Eastern European country. The reaction to it might differ between nations - Russians have learned to angrily accept their own pessimistic views as reality, while Poles rebel against it. Ukrainians fight for their lives against the darkness, while Bulgarians seem like they are still stuck in the habit of looking for the next authoritarian hero. I would suppose that reaction helps quantify the strength of a culture, but it's not really linear. Either way, it's a lot to analyze.
Thanks for writing this.
I do appreciate your essay. I see myself in it. As a citizen of the USA, I see the challenges ahead, the years necessary to recover from the damage being done by the fascist regime running my country. More than anything, I am grateful to the Hungarian people inside AND outside of the country, who stayed strong and built a united front to rid their country from a despot. I hope those days are coming in my country. I am very happy for you all.