The Ripper
04-19-2010, 06:26 AM
The correct perspective on Jobbik's success (and rising European popular discontent in general, I expect)...
Hungary's woes favour far-right
Gavin Hewitt | 13:04 UK time, Tuesday, 13 April 2010
It is one of the scripts of European history. A weak and corrupt government. Widespread unemployment. A shrinking economy. Crime. A political party emerges. It offers certainty. Solutions. A cleansing. Crime to be "eradicated". Scapegoats identified.
So with the rise of Jobbik in Hungary. In Sunday's elections the party came a strong third, winning almost 17% of the vote. Its popularity has been built on railing against what it calls "gypsy crime". The Roma, who make up between 6-7% of the population, are cast as thieves who top up their thieving with benefits.
As a party they draw on the language and images of the past.
They are linked to the Hungarian Guard, whose uniforms are reminiscent of a wartime pro-Nazi group.
They deny they are anti-Semitic and yet they speak of "foreign speculators" who control the country - a group that includes Israel. Supporters refer to Budapest as "Jewdapest".
In this climate a local rabbi says bumper stickers have appeared with the slogan "Jew-free car".
Hungary's largest Jewish organisation said Sunday's vote was "the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies had taken a step to power since the Nazi era".
All of this is against a background in which politicians are held in low regard. Lies were told about the economy. In 2008 Hungary needed a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund. Last year the economy shrunk by 6.3%. Unemployment is more than 11% and in the areas where Jobbik scored well it is even higher.
Paul Tannis, a sociologist, says the "party has played on the country's sense of wounded pride to make Roma and Jews the scapegoats for everything that has gone wrong".
Across Europe there are concerns about identity, about changing societies. It is a climate in which far-right or anti-immigrant groups can do well.
The National Front in France put up a robust showing in recent elections. Geert Wilders's Freedom Party could do well in the forthcoming Dutch elections.
What has not happened in Europe is a breakthrough for these parties.
They reflect anxiety, disaffection, and alienation from mainstream society. In calling for a national debate on identity French President Nicolas Sarkozy recognised the potency of this mood and it thrives on the economic downturn.
And history, however long buried, lurks beneath the surface. In the current tension between Germany and Greece over a potential bail-out, a senior Greek politician quickly pointed out that Germany still owed money for what it had done during the war. The Germans were furious. Some suggested, whether frivolously or not, that they might buy a few islands if the Greeks were desperate for money.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2010/04/hungarys_woes_favour_farright.html
...accompanied by some self-righteous American in the comments section, whose comments I think should be observed, because here we have the core of anti-European thinking.
At 3:16pm on 13 Apr 2010, MarcusAureliusII wrote:
In hard times Europe reasserts its true nature, antisemitic, antiroma, xenophobic, a cesspool of false national pride, ethnic hatred, and intense jealousies. All of the laws and treaties in the world can't change what is in people's hearts. And the hearts of Europeans are by and large as black as they ever were. This alone is reason enough that no matter what the economic numbers of any moment say, Europe will never catch up to America, will never be the kind of place America is, and will forever live in its delusions. The outside world isn't waiting for Europe to come to sanity. It moves on relentlessly indifferent to a failed civilization in rapid decline. There may be temporary financial bailouts and technical recoveries from economic downturns but there is not recovery from the attitudes that have existed in Europe and shaped Europeans for millenia. These attitudes are not shaped in Brussels or Strassbourg but in each individual home, village, community, school. These are the way Europeans are taught from childhood, attitued they will carry with them all of their lives and hand down to their own children and grandchildren. That is why there will never be a Martin luther King or a Barack Obama in a European country. Their cultures will not allow it.
The flaw is inherent in the way European societies are structured, they are based on shared histories, shared connections to land, shared cultures. Outsiders may be ignored, their presence even tolerated to a degree but they are never fully integrated. Not after a generation, not after dozens of generations where they have lived peacefully yet are the objects of exclusion. America by contrast is based on a structure of shared values. This is one sharp contrast which explains why the inclusion of Americans especially starting with the second generation, those who are born in America comes naturally and without question. This eternal ethnic, racial, religious bugaboo that perpetually plagues Europe is fading quickly in the US. By 2042 the caucausian population will be a minority in the US. Few Americans are at all concerned. In our system that simply doesn't matter.
Hungary's woes favour far-right
Gavin Hewitt | 13:04 UK time, Tuesday, 13 April 2010
It is one of the scripts of European history. A weak and corrupt government. Widespread unemployment. A shrinking economy. Crime. A political party emerges. It offers certainty. Solutions. A cleansing. Crime to be "eradicated". Scapegoats identified.
So with the rise of Jobbik in Hungary. In Sunday's elections the party came a strong third, winning almost 17% of the vote. Its popularity has been built on railing against what it calls "gypsy crime". The Roma, who make up between 6-7% of the population, are cast as thieves who top up their thieving with benefits.
As a party they draw on the language and images of the past.
They are linked to the Hungarian Guard, whose uniforms are reminiscent of a wartime pro-Nazi group.
They deny they are anti-Semitic and yet they speak of "foreign speculators" who control the country - a group that includes Israel. Supporters refer to Budapest as "Jewdapest".
In this climate a local rabbi says bumper stickers have appeared with the slogan "Jew-free car".
Hungary's largest Jewish organisation said Sunday's vote was "the first occasion that a movement pursuing openly anti-Semitic policies had taken a step to power since the Nazi era".
All of this is against a background in which politicians are held in low regard. Lies were told about the economy. In 2008 Hungary needed a bail-out from the International Monetary Fund. Last year the economy shrunk by 6.3%. Unemployment is more than 11% and in the areas where Jobbik scored well it is even higher.
Paul Tannis, a sociologist, says the "party has played on the country's sense of wounded pride to make Roma and Jews the scapegoats for everything that has gone wrong".
Across Europe there are concerns about identity, about changing societies. It is a climate in which far-right or anti-immigrant groups can do well.
The National Front in France put up a robust showing in recent elections. Geert Wilders's Freedom Party could do well in the forthcoming Dutch elections.
What has not happened in Europe is a breakthrough for these parties.
They reflect anxiety, disaffection, and alienation from mainstream society. In calling for a national debate on identity French President Nicolas Sarkozy recognised the potency of this mood and it thrives on the economic downturn.
And history, however long buried, lurks beneath the surface. In the current tension between Germany and Greece over a potential bail-out, a senior Greek politician quickly pointed out that Germany still owed money for what it had done during the war. The Germans were furious. Some suggested, whether frivolously or not, that they might buy a few islands if the Greeks were desperate for money.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/2010/04/hungarys_woes_favour_farright.html
...accompanied by some self-righteous American in the comments section, whose comments I think should be observed, because here we have the core of anti-European thinking.
At 3:16pm on 13 Apr 2010, MarcusAureliusII wrote:
In hard times Europe reasserts its true nature, antisemitic, antiroma, xenophobic, a cesspool of false national pride, ethnic hatred, and intense jealousies. All of the laws and treaties in the world can't change what is in people's hearts. And the hearts of Europeans are by and large as black as they ever were. This alone is reason enough that no matter what the economic numbers of any moment say, Europe will never catch up to America, will never be the kind of place America is, and will forever live in its delusions. The outside world isn't waiting for Europe to come to sanity. It moves on relentlessly indifferent to a failed civilization in rapid decline. There may be temporary financial bailouts and technical recoveries from economic downturns but there is not recovery from the attitudes that have existed in Europe and shaped Europeans for millenia. These attitudes are not shaped in Brussels or Strassbourg but in each individual home, village, community, school. These are the way Europeans are taught from childhood, attitued they will carry with them all of their lives and hand down to their own children and grandchildren. That is why there will never be a Martin luther King or a Barack Obama in a European country. Their cultures will not allow it.
The flaw is inherent in the way European societies are structured, they are based on shared histories, shared connections to land, shared cultures. Outsiders may be ignored, their presence even tolerated to a degree but they are never fully integrated. Not after a generation, not after dozens of generations where they have lived peacefully yet are the objects of exclusion. America by contrast is based on a structure of shared values. This is one sharp contrast which explains why the inclusion of Americans especially starting with the second generation, those who are born in America comes naturally and without question. This eternal ethnic, racial, religious bugaboo that perpetually plagues Europe is fading quickly in the US. By 2042 the caucausian population will be a minority in the US. Few Americans are at all concerned. In our system that simply doesn't matter.