While PressTV and Russia Today aren't very popular in the
West and are viewed as purveyors of propaganda, the truth is as usual a bit
more complicated.
They certainly are agenda driven but that said so is Western
media. This doesn't negate everything you read or hear in the West, nor does it
negate everything you might watch on Press TV or RT. Context determines all.
I appreciated this brief programme because it provided some
nuance to a complicated issue.
Viktor Orban's government in Hungary is portrayed as authoritarian in the Western media and there are growing concerns of an almost Fascist-like nationalism beginning to develop. With this come populist strains of racism mostly directed toward Roma and Jews.
The alarm bells are being sounded and Hungary is often
pointed to as a place where bad things are happening. A place to watch.
This PressTV piece disputes that narrative and argues
Orban's government isn't dictatorial and its actions are rooted in economic and
cultural nationalism. The documentary basically ignores the other issues that
are making the news.... the Far Right anti-Semitism etc...
Who's right?
Well, they both are and that's what makes it interesting.
Authoritarianism isn't necessarily the harbinger of looming dictatorship.
Some might call it regulation and demand it in times of trouble and stress. I'm
afraid we've had similar debates in this country during times of crisis. Those who
would defend the US government taking strong measures and ignoring provisions
of the Constitution would argue context. They (right or wrong) would say that
1861, 1917, 1950 and 2001 all represent moments of crisis... moments that
required the government to put its preservation first, over and above any
constitutional concerns. Nationalism trumps civil liberties.
What's driving Hungarian politics is nationalism. To
understand this you have to know something of their history and the bitter
grievances they harbour. Hungary came out a big loser in the World Wars and
lost most of its territory. Then it felt betrayed by the West as it was
relegated to the Iron Curtain. Let's just say Winston Churchill is not held in
very high regard among many Central and Eastern Europeans. As Roosevelt was
waning, Churchill negotiated much of the post-war settlement with Stalin and
many have never forgiven him for selling them out.
Contrary to the PressTV piece I would say the Orban
government is indeed authoritarian and is working to crush dissenting voices,
in many cases viewing them as subversive and under outside influence.
Yes, there is a growing racism but that's not just in
Hungary. We're seeing this all over Europe.
What the video does bring out are the nationalistic and
economic concerns that are at work in Hungary and frankly in many parts of the
EU. Nations are losing their autonomy. Free markets and international
competition are destroying not just local economies... but culture itself. When
a way of life is destroyed the cohesion of the nation begins to deteriorate.
Orban learned, apparently the hard way, that the IMF and
World Bank are tools utilized by the more powerful countries as a means to
dominate the weak. They work hard to force countries into these loans
structures and all the accompanying parameters that virtually bring them into
bondage. In some cases it appears that economies have actually been sabotaged
to bring nations to their knees and then... sign them up.
The loans come with many strings attached. They have to
deregulate and privatize their economies and infrastructure allowing large
multi-national conglomerates to come in and dominate them. Many people have
figured this out and recognize this as a form of Neo-Colonialism.
The Snowden revelations demonstrate just how closely the US
government works alongside of these corporations. They are in effect an arm of
US foreign policy. Economics are political.
This is (in part) why we're seeing backlash against
globalization and projects like the European Union.
What's really interesting is how PressTV brought out the
fact that Western Media is focusing on Orban's dissenters and playing up the
demonstrations as something more than they are... while at the same time
ignoring the massive support he has. We've seen the same thing in Russia.
In fact, it's a move out of an old playbook that dates back
to the Dulles brothers and the early days of the Cold War. For the two percent
of Americans who actually pay attention to international news, this type of
coverage effectively softens them up. They become accustomed to the idea that
there's growing discontent and dissent at work in the nation in question. And
thus when the coup or overthrow takes place, no one is surprised, no one thinks
to examine or question the circumstance.
Most recently this occurred in Venezuela as the United
States worked to overthrow Chavez. The acquiescent Western media played its part
and portrayed the country as turning against him when in fact the opposite was
true. The landowners and creatures of the corporations always hated him but the
bulk of the populace backed him. Had the coup been successful very few people in
the West would have thought to question the circumstances.
While I don't like Orban and detest all nationalism I think
it's clear he's on the chopping block.
It's understandable that people want to protect their way of
life. I enjoyed the segment along the shores of Lake Balaton... it brought back
memories for me... and I could understand his point. Local people are invested
in the land and community in a way the Agro-giants and Wal-Mart's of the world
will never be.
That's one type of nationalism, rooted in maintaining custom
and a way of life.
But there's also the ugly side that detests the 'other', the
minority, the stranger living within your boundaries, the scapegoat for
cultural frustrations etc...
There's also the ugly side that hates nuance and demands
uniformity in thought and seeks to censor and suppress all other viewpoints.
These tensions are inherently irresolvable.
Will I weep if Orban's government ends up going down? Of
course not.
But I weep for the truth because few seem to care for it or
desire it.
Our media will never give the back story, they won't provide
context. PressTV also failed in this piece. To present the story takes time. To
compress it means an assumption that your audience is knowledgeable enough to
follow along.
My concerns diverge from the interests of any media
organization, thus for me the answer is always to take in a wide array of
information, integrate it with history and try and figure out what's happening.
An American or even Western European might say who cares
what's happening in Hungary?
If we're Christians we should care because there are
Christians there.
There are missionary groups that often misrepresent what's
happening in other countries especially if the truth is somehow incompatible
with their own political affiliations and agenda. If Capitalism is harming a
country and the lives of church members in that country I don't trust an
American Evangelical organization to be honest about that.
Secondly, we're paying taxes and there are forces in our
society encouraging us to think certain ways about the world. Our neighbours
and sadly maybe even people we go to church with are sending their children
into Wall Street and the military to implement the policies of the
Corporatocracy and people are being harmed as a result.
I was a dupe. I was a fool and I began to realize it in the
1990s as I sat in Italy as part of American power projection. And I realized
the US government doesn't care about people or truth. It cares about power.
The US was not idle in the 1990s. I recently watched (for
the second time) a PBS documentary on Bill Clinton. It's not liberal. It's an
Establishment whitewash... just like the recent biographies of Eisenhower and
Wilson that I've read... and it ignores the larger issues and forces at work in
Clinton's decision to get involved in the breakup of Yugoslavia.
The US didn't care about massacred Bosnians, nor did it
later care about Kosovar Albanians. It certainly didn't care about black
Africans in Rwanda. What it cared about was Project Europe and its unification.
The US was and is determined to keep Europe as a unified block that can be
manipulated and controlled. To the victor go the spoils. This doesn't mean the
US 'controls' Europe. Washington and Manhattan don't want to micromanage
European legislation, but they do want access to US business, priority in terms
of international relations, access to markets and the ability to build military
bases etc...
While right now all the attention is on Putin, characters
like Orban also represent a threat. The US always employs the Strategy of
Tension. It strokes its allies while it stabs them in the back. It needs the
EU, wants to manipulate it and use it, but at the same time works to
destabilize and weaken it.
Washington likes Britain's resistance to the EU and the way
it weakens the union.
But Washington doesn't like people like Milosevic, Yanukovych
and Orban who put cultural and national interests first and resist economic and
political domination by alien powers.
I can understand why many people believe very strongly in
the idea of the EU. Not all of them are Babel-builders. Some believe this is essential
to solving Europe's problems and preventing the one inevitable in European
history....war.
On the other hand I can also understand why many are very
opposed to the EU and believe it represents an existential threat to their
cultures and way of life.
As Christians we're caught in the middle and can't really
endorse either side. We're not called to. We are to witness to the truth and we
can do this more effectively when we rightly understand what's happening and
why. Actually as Christians and thus 'outsiders' I believe we are more equipped
to do this.
But very few are interested in learning these things. But they
are more than happy to participate in the project and spout off about it when
Glenn Beck or some other hack breaks it down for them.
In terms of power the truth is pretty simple.
How it all plays out can be almost infinitely complicated.
Historical knowledge and a good theology of sin and power
will give you pretty good intuition. Utilizing history and a wide range of
media sources will help you to develop wisdom.
