The Bravery in the Politics MISSION IMPOSSIBLE

The Bravery in the Politics MISSION IMPOSSIBLE – COURAGE AS VIRTUE IN THE POLITICS NOVEMBER 7 2016 BALASSI INSTITUTE SOFIA FERENC BÓDI CENTER FOR SOCIAL SCIENCES HUNGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES PROF.

Bravery as a main virtue Platonic virtue: Temperance Prudence Courage Justice Wisdom

ARISTOTLE'S Nicomachean Ethics The golden mean is the desirable middle between two extremes, one of excess and the other of deficiency. The courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess would manifest as recklessness, and, in deficiency, cowardice.

The courage is always voluntary „Him whom I might spy far off from the battle, crouching in fear, It is certain that he will not be able to flee the dogs? (Hector cited from Homer Iliad) And if those who assign military posts drive their men back into their ranks by beating them, they do the same thing, as do those who station their men in front of trenches and such things. For all are using compulsion, and one ought not to be courageous on account of compulsion but because it is noble to be such. ” (ARISTOTLE'S Nicomachean Ethics)

Brave action is not a trickster’s reckless game All cultures have tales of the Trickster, a crafty creature who uses cunning to get food, steal precious possessions, or simply cause mischief. In some Greek myths Hermes plays the Trickster. He is the patron of thieves and the inventor of lying. „… courage is a mean with respect to what inspires confidence and fear in the situations spoken of, [danger] and it chooses and endures what it does because it is noble to do so, or because it is shameful not to. ” (ARISTOTLE)

Recklessness v. Courage Unlimited action Limited action The Trickster or Clown is an example of a Jungian archetype: fake revolutionist Revolutionist

Fake Revolution v. Revolution Sacrificial culture n n n Scapegoats (nationality or social class) Image of the enemy (inner and outside) Paranoia of the power (distrust of the society) Narrowness (fake savior attitude ) Permanent political purges - Eжовщина Post sacrificial culture n n n Dignity National unity Social reconciliation Social peace Social trust

Bravery in the political action Profiles in Courage is a 1957 Pulitzer Prize-winning volume of short biographies describing acts of bravery and integrity by eight United Sates Senators throughout the Senate's history. The book profiles senators who defied the opinions of their party and constituents to do what they felt was right and suffered severe criticism and losses in popularity because of their actions.

Prolog of the Revolution 1956 Hungary

Divided Europe – Iron Curtain After 1945 Eastern-Europe involuntarily became a part of a new global order with an idea that formed the society called communism. As a fashion of the age it was popular in several Western democratic countries, especially in certain intellectual circles. According to Churchill communism is the ideology of envy, although capitalism is not free from it either. Zbignev Bjezinsky states in his speech at the inauguration of the House of Terror that communism is an idea built on the weakness of human characteristics, an idea that destroys brakes and barriers of the earlier societies.

Cold War in West and East Europe Marshall Plan (approximately $120 billion in current dollar value as of June 2016) Communist economy n n compulsory delivery of the agricultural production, Kulak list religious persecution (church education and religious order) lower standard of living in 1956 compared to 1938 (10 years after WWII) almost the whole society was class enemy

Impossible mission n Chance for change of the Geopolitical situation Chance of the Military Solve Chance for independence and freedom

Letter from a Birmingham Jail [King, Jr. ] April 16, 1963 courageous acts can open the new way for humanity „Of course, there is nothing new about this kind of civil disobedience. It was evidenced sublimely in the refusal of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to obey the laws of Nebuchadnezzar, on the ground that a higher moral law was at stake. It was practiced superbly by the early Christians, who were willing to face hungry lions and the excruciating pain of chopping blocks rather than submit to certain unjust laws of the Roman Empire. To a degree, academic freedom is a reality today because Socrates practiced civil disobedience. In our own nation, the Boston Tea Party represented a massive act of civil disobedience. ” virtues overcome the laws „We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was "legal" and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was "illegal. " It was "illegal" to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler's Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers. If today I lived in a Communist country where certain principles dear to the Christian faith are suppressed, I would openly advocate disobeying that country's antireligious laws. ”

End of Communism and dictatorships in East-Europe The freedom fighters of 1956 revolution fought against an order destroying the moral basis of the previous order starting a wave of revolutions that shook the countries of the Easternblock in every twelve year. These revolutions revealed the lies of the rule built on false ideology in front of the world’s public opinion. Budapest, Prague, Gdańsk are the stations of a long march that were not created by external powers. The nations participating in this march did not hope to reach their goals. Lech Wałęsa wrote: “I talked to the most important persons of the world: with presidents, with prime ministers, with kings. None of them believed that communism could be overcome before 2000. I did not meet anybody who would regard it to be possible. Not with any person in this whole world. ”

Literature René Girard (1972) Violence and the Sacred

bodi. ferenc@tk. mta. hu THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION