According to an old Arab legend, when God distributed intelligence, He hid it in the head of the Greeks, in the hands of the Chinese, and in the tongue of the Arabs. We have eleven hundred years of proof that Hungarians got all three. Europe would be poorer without us, but this is not enough: it must be richer because of us.
175 years ago, we fought a war of independence for the first time as a nation in the modern sense. Its cause and purpose were the same as today. The greats of the Reform Era declared: we want not only to be free, but free Hungarians. Hungarian freedom can be shaped into a livable form for us by Hungarian genius.
Let’s pose the question: does Hungarian genius exist? In the global madness in which we are given to live today, this is probably one of the most important questions, and I would explain below why I consider it one of the most important.
We know that our word ‘géniusz’ comes from the Latin word ‘genius’, the meaning of which is usually underpinned as spiritual ability, human spirit, or more precisely, we understand it as the creative power of the human spirit. However, the Latin verb ‘geno’ can be derived from the Ancient Greek ‘gennao’, which means: to beget, to create. That’s why some philosophers say that genius repeats the divine act of creation, and as such, cannot be rule-following. There is something divine in genius, therefore above reason, intangible and incomprehensible to human understanding, and we have marveled at this for thousands of years. That’s why it’s difficult to argue that this divine part could have a nationality. The question remains whether genius can be Hungarian. More sober philosophers suggest that in such cases, it’s worth thinking through the problem from the perspective of consequences; according to them, one can infer the creator from the created world. If this is so, then our question can be rephrased as: is there a Hungarian quality to human existence, does a Hungarian world exist?
We ourselves are the answer. Hungarian geniuses shaped this corner of Europe from pasture into homeland. Thanks to them, we live in the freedom of somewhere as opposed to the freedom of anywhere. By this we mean that we love our country, our birthplace and our nation, we look at the world in Hungarian, and we want to live our own life. So there is a Hungarian quality to human existence, because we live it. And this quality has always been elevated by our geniuses. In their concrete lifetime, we sometimes treat them harshly. In our shared fate, we follow them.
And that’s why the question about Hungarian genius is important, because the answer confirms: we are added value to Europe and the world as Hungarians.
It’s good to be Hungarian.
Notes:
The text references the Hungarian War of Independence of 1848-1849, which is an important event in Hungarian history.
The “Reform Era” (Reformkor in Hungarian) refers to a period in Hungarian history from the 1820s to the 1848 revolution, characterized by social, political, and economic reforms.
The essay plays with the concept of “genius” both in its modern sense (exceptional intellectual or creative power) and in terms of its etymological roots related to creation and spirit.
The phrase “freedom of somewhere as opposed to the freedom of anywhere” is a conceptual distinction that might not be immediately clear to non-Hungarian readers. It seems to contrast a rootless, global freedom with a freedom grounded in national identity and place.
The final statement “It’s good to be Hungarian” (“Magyarnak lenni jó”) is a well-known phrase in Hungarian cultural discourse.
Homeland Dictionary 