Today being conservative and normal is seen as rebellious, the Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office stressed at the conference entitled ‘Culture War in the 21st Century’ held in Budapest on Tuesday.
In his address entitled ‘Is This the Final Struggle?’ Gergely Gulyás warned that these days in the West the forces that call themselves ‘progressive’ dictate what is acceptable and what is not. After 1968, everything changed; the generation of 1968 felt they had the authority to dictate what is moral and what the governing norms should be that everyone is required to align to, and those who have other notions are stigmatised. In Western Europe anyone who goes against the left-liberal mainstream is harassed until they leave public life, the Minister observed, adding that Central Europe has become the scene of freedom.
In the context of the riots taking place in the United States, the Fidesz politician stressed, with reference to the autumn 2006 demonstrations in Budapest, that “we know only too well that there is no excuse for police brutality,” but this is no reason “to wipe away the past and to retailor the present”. In the United States, society is being manipulated with well-organised demonstrations, and the goal is to destroy national history, traditions and morals. The left-wing media in America keep pushing the idea that the police and the state are racist.
In Western Europe, societies are being transformed, their national identities are being replaced, and they have seen business and cultural opportunities in migration, the Minister said. The liberal spirit, which originally wanted the best, threw the intelligentsia into nihilism and the masses into confusion with its postmodern unprincipled principles, Mr Gulyás added, quoting the author Imre Kertész.
In her address entitled ‘The Fall of the American Model’, historian Mária Schmidt, Director General of the organiser of the conference 21st Century Institute said Hungary has become “a border fort” of European culture, and no longer wants to be like the West which now has absolutely no basis for arrogant superiority. Western Europe has killed all capitalist illusions. Eastern Europe is shocked to see what the West has become. The West – as victors in general – believes that it does everything well and has become arrogant; now, however, it is helplessly floundering in the deadly embrace of its Marxist, far-left elite, the historian said.
During the migration crisis, the dichotomy between Eastern and Western Europe became evident, Ms. Schmidt pointed out. The West is no longer pro-freedom, it is in actual fact anti-freedom, shows no tolerance, and strives for exclusivity. There is no mercy, they are forcefully removing everyone from the scene who goes against the left-liberal elite. We need a culture war, Ms. Schmidt stressed. She recalled that more than five years ago, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán rebelled against the adoption of the liberal project, and the hegemony of neo-liberal economic policy and individualism.