How can one use the language of “love,” “cooperation” and “unity” to bring masses of people into a frenzy and to make them obedient? András Göllner, the founder of the Canadian Hungarian Democratic Charter, explores this question in an essay published in HFP’s sister paper, the Kanadai Magyar Hírlap (KMH). For those HFP readers who are proficient in Hungarian, we strongly recommend Dr. Göllner’s exploration of the Orbán government’s political communication, which it has employed not only in Hungary, but also abroad, in Hungarian diaspora communities. The very clear suggestion in this essay is that the most committed supporters of Fidesz–in Hungary, but also in the United States, Canada and in other countries with significant Hungarian communities–behave almost exactly like members of a religious cult. And, indeed, Fidesz’s methods of communication are quite similar to what the Moonies (the Unification Church) would engage in, when it convinced young men and women in the United States to attend remote retreats during the sixties and seventies, for the purpose of indoctrination. They would “bomb them with love.” You can read more on the type of “love bombing” practiced by Moonies here, and see how similar it is to the methods used by Fidesz.
Illustration: Jon Herr.
In order to truly understand how Prime Minister Viktor Orbán managed to solidify and extend his power, and turn Hungary from a liberal democracy that many saw as a regional role model–especially compared to the Slovakia and Romania of the 1990s–into an authoritarian and illiberal state, one must go back in time to the writings of a handful of thinkers in the sixties and seventies, including Richard Bandler, John Grinder and Milton Erickson. But, as Dr. Göllner points out, we should go back even further to 18th century Scottish philosopher David Hume, who dared to question the cult of rationalism espoused by most Enlightenment thinkers and noted that the Enlightenment ultimately underestimated the power of emotion in how people develop, grasp and process knowledge. Dr. Göllner notes that thinkers in the 1970’s “showed how reality could be rewritten by playing on emotions, how one could gradually push out facts and intellect from the mind, thus achieving either on an individual level or en masse the end result of having them become obedient.”
Let’s summarize a few key findings and conclusions in English:
- Fidesz uses the language of love to sideline rational thinking among its supporters;
- Fidesz tolerates absolutely no dissent;
- Fidesz perceives competition as a type of self-harm and thus is to be avoided at all cost. Mr. Orbán already confirmed this in 2002, in a speech given in Budapest’s Castle district, shortly after his electoral defeat at the hands of the Socialists. He declared that his party is the embodiment of the homeland and the nation. The nation cannot be in opposition. As such, for three years, he boycotted parliament. Then between 2006 and 2010, he deliberately left the chamber each time his main opponent, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány, would rise to speak.
- Fidesz manages to bring its supporters into a “light” hypnotic trance.
More recently, it appears as though Jobbik is using the communications strategy employed by Fidesz for years to give Mr. Orbán’s party a real run for its money. “Jobbik has long appropriated these linguistic secrets. After all, Jobbik was raised in Fidesz’s nursery, it hatched from Fidesz’s nest. And by now, Jobbik is increasingly confident in circling the skies over Tapolca and other cities in Hungary,” writes Dr. Göllner in KMH.
Dr. Göllner’s essay aims to deal with an aspect of Fidesz’s communications strategy that has been neglected. It is crucial for us to be conscious of this strategy, if we are to understand the workings of Mr. Orbán’s illiberal state.
