National pride

A few days ago Tárki, a polling company, together with Image Factory, a firm offering “political and business solutions,” looked into the question of national pride and the nation’s self image.

Three years ago 40% of all Hungarians were proud of being Hungarian. Today, only 32%.

This question of national pride has always puzzled me. Where we are born and what language we learn as infants is really happenstance. Something over which we have no control. Why anyone should feel pride because of it is beyond me. Especially if we try to flesh out the basis of this pride.

For most people the source of national pride is sports. So there will be a frenzy this summer if the Hungarians do well in the Beijing Olympics. On the other hand, I guess a certain shame will set in if they don’t get as many medals as they are hoping for.

Some think that the Hungarians are a very talented people. Proof of this is the number of Nobel Prize winners. Alas, with the exception of one, all of them achieved world fame abroad.

Others think that Hungarian cuisine is just fantastic. They like to say that the three best cuisines in the world are the French, the Chinese, and the Hungarian. Hmmm! What about the Italian, the Spanish, the Thai, the Vietnamese, and I could mention many more. Hungarian men are proud that Hungarian women are so beautiful. Again beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

We like what we are accustomed to. For example, I once had a Hungarian visitor who told me that she had never in her life seen so many ugly people as in the United States. In any case, 57% of those polled are actually ashamed of certain things they associate with the country. In 2005 that number was only 41%.

This news item inspired many people, especially on the right, to ponder the idea of national pride. Among them was Klári Fekete, the mother of Krisztina Morvai whose exaggerated political utterances bordering on the unacceptable have made their rounds in the last few years. Klári Fekete phoned György Bolgár today to share with him and the many thousands of listeners her own feelings about national pride. She thinks that Viktor Orbán’s emphasis on national pride is very important and that the trouble in Hungary is that there is not enough of it.

Read the entire article: National pride »