Hungarian official discusses EP budget, election, migration with Italian officials

1 Comment

1. Sander Driessen says:

   14/02/2019 at 13:33

   With the EU-elections in sight it is time to close a chapter in our recent history. The elite in Brussels have stolen our identity and they will proceed with further actions, like closing the internet options. See here the answer:
   Their amazement about the rise of a revolutionary counter movement shows that self-reflection is the last thing in their minds. Some people have, like bats or owls, better eyes for the darkness than for the light Charles Dickens wrote. And they believe that they can see. The manifesto signed by 30 pro-European (say pro-European Union) intellectuals to warn us of Europe’s disintegration is such a product of the dark. Faith in Europe, in ‘the cause’, or the goal of saving ‘liberal democracy’ in a battle for civilization of the demagogues and populist forces is the core of their argument. And then I am generous with my interpretation. Actually there is nothing at all and it is a panic pamphlet as only written by people who are threatened in their bread and not in their conscience. It does not explain exactly what the goal entails, what exactly the challenge for democracy is, what values Europe should defend. As is often the case nowadays, you are expected to submit to the magic of them (because who is against liberal democracy?) Instead of linking a value or action to that term. Apparently there is no time for that because Europe is falling apart before our eyes and ‘Resistance’ is the answer, headlines that have published the manifesto. These intellectual bats appeal to our sense of urgency and hope that we are lit with their fear of populism instead of seeing through their fraud. You would expect them to sing a little bit softer on the edge of their intellectual bankruptcy. No, the idea of liberal democracy (so-called ‘populism’) hijacked by leaders of the European Union and this kind of false prophets is held up as an emblem on their intellectual shield against the danger of today. Some of the signatories are well known: the writer Ian McEwan, Salman Rushdie and the playboy-philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy who wrote the manifesto. They call themselves ‘European patriots’ and feel the duty to lift the people of Europe above themselves and their past. For Lévy and his colleagues this amounts to the insolent defending of the oligarchy of the Brussels bureaucracy. Also because the European elections are mentioned as a decisive moment the manifest is more worthy of airtime for political parties than our intellectual attention. Yet their gut is an interesting one because they are right that Europe threatens to fall apart. Only now do they again elevate the (utopian) ideas above the people, precisely the reason why we are in this mess. As a hard drug addict Lévy sticks to the gray-turned, megalomaniac and lazy ideas that are all a variation on the fantasized course of history, a vision in which unhindered freedom would bring everything together. A childishly demanding desire for continuity and predictability, for sweets for everyone. Whether the lot – Europe – can actually come together, she has not been interested for a day. For decades leftists prefer to demonize with their imagine-like naivety every opponent who points to the demographic crisis, the cultural relativism and the disappearance of the church as a real announcement for our current situation. The blind faith in the course of history naturally provided comfortable armchair activism and leftist intellectuals have actively contributed to the preservation of this dream state in which everyone had to be able to go ahead so that it would be okay. And if not: also good! In fact, Lévy and the signatories are more right than they know when they say that they have missed a turn in history. But their amazement about the rise of a revolutionary counter movement shows that selfreflection is the last thing their head is about. Lévy focuses his arrows exclusively on the danger of populism and demagogues. Still Erasmus, Dante and Goethe name-drop, but it remains confetti on mental mud. Nothing about Christianity, nothing about the national differences that form the truth about Europe. But just finish the bingocard with a reductio ad Hitlerum because populism is a challenge that is greater than any since the ‘30s. Such utterly idiotic and insane accusations to the people show that the term populism is once again only a hypnotic trigger to demonize everyone (the only thing left really good in) who sees it differently. Populism was once a synonym for popular, a reference to a connection with the people, for the people and with the people. But leftists do not love the people, only ideas. After all, ideas are not erratic. So hardly anyone talks about the people or about the people and not without reason: The people represent a problem for the elite who have cleverly exchanged the concept of populism with democracy: a concept that they cannot condemn for obvious reasons and purchase. What the ‘populists all think and think according to Lévy is not good:
   The idea of Europe is in peril. From all sides there are criticisms, insults and desertions from the cause. Enough of building Europe! is the cry. Let’s reconnect instead with our national soul! Let’s rediscover our lost identity! This is the agenda shared by the populist forces washing over the continent. Never mind that abstractions such as soul and identity exist in the imagination of demagogues. In response to the nationalist and identitarian onslaught, we must rediscover the spirit of activism or accept that resentment and hatred will surround and submerge us. Urgently, we need to sound the alarm against these arsonists or soul and spirit who, from Paris to Rome, with stops along the way in Barcelona, Budapest, Dresden, Vienna and Warsaw, because to make a bonfire or our freedoms. Lévy finds it a terrible idea that there are populists or better: forces that flood the continent that seek their lost identity, their soul and do not want to build that Europe. No, rather, just continue on the path of fantasized history, then it will be fine. The idea will take care of itself. In the manifesto the image is evoked of foaming and raging hordes that break down an idea. Shame! While, if something trembling and foaming attacks our liberal democracy, then it is the intellectual hordes that, in the name of the same liberalism, demand that people go to the stake. If you do not want to call men women, Islam is not peace and black people are not victims. To name a few things, the list of things that we need in the name of liberalism is getting longer by the day. It would have been so much more interesting if the well-known intellectuals of today would admit that no one has yet succeeded in capturing the essence and spirit of Europe – in the age of the European Union. What these intellectuals call Europe, pointing to the flag of the European Union, has never been a successful replacement of nation states. That realization only offers real opportunities to lift us above history, to make a clean ship. Many parts of populism are already that far. The tactic to erase traces, to pretend that a common, fictitious enemy from our own right now is the raison d’être of liberal democracy (and the need for a powerful European Union), is not going to keep things together. The truth is harsh. This flashy form of blackmail, complete with accusations, demonization and fearmaking, makes populism no less a democratic pushback. More will be needed to stop the revolution of the right, alt-right and extreme right than this rag of a manifesto. Because the non-intellectual people who just work, learn, have children, build up and work together, just like their ancestors did, can no longer be fooled. Populism is at its core a reaction to the lies, intimidation, stupidity and political correctness around us, the lies that Lévy now shamelessly presents. And like that human reaction is a bonfire of our freedoms, it is only that, that means that the real freedom can only be beautiful.