Hungarian National Identity in the Information Age

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Hungarian National Identity in the Information Age

• György Csepeli
• Political State Secretary
• Ministry of Informatics and Communication
• Montclair, March 2. 2006.

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The need for a name
Now the whole world had one language and a
common speech. As men moved eastward, they found
a plain in Shinar and settled there. They said to
each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake
them thoroughly." They used brick instead of
stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, "Come,
let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that
reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a
name for ourselves and not be scattered over the
face of the whole earth." But the LORD came down
to see the city and the tower that the men were
building. The LORD said, "If as one people
speaking the same language they have begun to do
this, then nothing they plan to do will be
impossible for them. Come, let us go down and
confuse their language so they will not
understand each other." So the LORD scattered
them from there over all the earth, and they
stopped building the city.
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Consequences of the name

• Categorization (enhanced similarity and
  dissimilarity, ordering of the social world)
• Differentiation into ingroup and outgroup, we
  and us
• Semantic universe
• Identification process

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Ethnocentrism
Each group nourishes its own pride and vanity,
boasts itself superior, exalts its own
divinities, and looks with contempt on outsiders.
Each group thinks its own folkways the only right
ones, and if it observes that other groups have
other folkways, these provoke its scorn. /G.W.
Sumner, 1906. Folkways A study of the
sociological importance of usages, manners, mores
and morals. New York A Mentor Book. p. 28/
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The road from tribes to nations
-Social entropy -Modernization (State, Market,
Class-structure) -Politics of Group Identity
Nationalism, citizenship, foreigners vs.
nationals
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Two kinds of nationalism

• Political nationalism
• Recognized boundaries
• Capital City
• Professionals
• Bureaucracy
• Spirit of Capitalism
• Enemies outside
• Self-respect
• Present

• Cultural nationalism
• Boundaries in the Soul
• Holy Cities
• Intelligentsia
• National character
• Spirit of anti-Capitalism
• Enemies inside
• Paranoia
• Past and Future

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The making of the Magyar content
Landscape
Animals
People
History
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Independence and its costs
POLITICS OF COERCION

• Independence as late experience
• National frustration stemming from Trianon
• Learned helplessness looking for allies
• Illusory victories
• Defeat without defeated
• No responsibility
• Injustice to injustice (Soviet invasion)
• 1956 revolt and submission
• 1989-1990 transition to democracy
• 1999 NATO membership
• 2004 EU membership (national devolution)

POLITICS OF CONSENT
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Information age
Internet based communication(anybody to anybody,
anywhere, anytime, anything)Virtual body
Face to face communication Body to body
Mediated communication Loss of body
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Long distance nationalism
Parliamentary parties MSZP FIDESZ
SZDSZ MDF Parties out of Parliament MIÉP Centrump
árt Munkáspárt Websites of extreme political
movements Irredentist site Hungarian
skinheads Trianon site Hungarian portals in the
Carpathian Basin Erdély (Romania) Kárpátalja
(Ukraine) Burgerland (Austria) Felvidék
(Slovakia) Vajdaság (Serbia) Sites of the
Hungarian diaspora USA

• Re-emergence of cultural nationalism
• Competing narratives
• Loss of canon
• Network based communities
• Global homeland

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Psychological transition
Levy Distrust Complaint Tax evasion Envy Zero sum
games Anti-capitalism Scapegoating Paternalism Clo
sed mind
Credit Trust Pride Tax paying Compassion Non zero
sum games Pro-capitalism Taking
responsibility Autonomy Open mind
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Thank you for your attention!