Footnote

A few years ago, the “Dead White Men” movement started in American universities, aiming to trash Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian culture just because the vast majority of its pillars were “dead white men”. For their comrades spitting red mist on the old continent, it’s a further aggravating circumstance that they were all European.

We’re knee-deep in the culture war. It’s not a recent development. In 1968, everything that made Europe European came under attack: the national cultures standing on Christian foundations. That idea ran its course, made a round in the world, only to come back as a boomerang. We’re fighting against those who think the entire European dead white culture should be thrown on the fire.

What exactly should replace it, I couldn’t figure out. There’s a huge gap between the idea and practice of multiculturalism (because we learn nothing: this is how it happened with communism too). The Western concept is roughly this – we give up our own identity, admiring yours because “otherness is beautiful”, so you don’t have to give up anything and stay who you are.

In Europe, we’re used to winning debates with reason. This culture war, since its foundation is identity politics, is not like that. Identity debate doesn’t exist, and by its nature, it’s not possible. The trap is this: if someone claims they are this and that, I can’t dispute it, because then I’m questioning their essence.

So, this culture war will be won by whoever has a stronger self-identity. Our job would be to strengthen our Christian, Hungarian, and European identity.

Not least because remaining Hungarian and European is not only in the interest of national policy, it’s also a rock solid business case. People don’t visit Athens from all over the world because there’s a good sushi bar at the foot of the Acropolis. They make better sushi in the Far East. In India, they cultivate a better and more authentic Indian culture than we could reproduce, South America is more authentically South American, in Islamic countries there’s a better and more authentic Muslim civilization than we could be. So, the competition of who’s the better Indian, Chinese, or Arab will be won by the Chinese, Indians and Arabs. Europe’s value lies precisely in being European. Hungarian culture is unique and special precisely because it’s Hungarian.   

Of course, one can still be a “world citizen”, which philosophically is an alibi for sublation; let’s level up, raise our noses from the provincial mud, or whatever. “We all come from nothing, and we go back to the big stinking nothing,” as István Örkény so accurately put it, essentially this is the metaphysical foundation of European world citizenship.

For my part, I remain Hungarian and European. I consider it possible that in Plato’s time, brilliant thoughts were also born in the depths of Africa, I deeply respect the several thousand-year-old Far Eastern cultures, but I still don’t think Plato’s dialogues should be burned. He was white, okay, male, okay, also dead, that’s okay too – but to this day, we footnote him in Europe.

Notes:

“Dead White Men” movement: A critical perspective in academia that questions the predominance of Western, male authors in traditional curricula.

“1968”: Refers to the student protests and cultural shifts that occurred in Europe and the US in that year.

István Örkény: A renowned Hungarian writer known for his absurdist and satirical works. The quote “We all come from nothing, and we go back to the big stinking nothing” is from his works.

“Culture war”: A conflict between traditional cultural values and progressive ideas.

“Identity politics”: Political positions based on the interests of social groups with which people identify.

“Sublation” (megszüntetve megőrzés): A philosophical concept often associated with Hegel, meaning to both negate and preserve.

Hungarian expressions:

“Szügyig állunk” (We’re knee-deep, or chest-deep): An idiom meaning to be deeply involved in something.

“Mucsai dagony” (provincial mud): A reference to provincial or unsophisticated thinking.