{"id":1988960,"date":"2023-08-02T16:41:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-02T20:41:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-cheers-for-hungary\/"},"modified":"2023-08-02T16:48:10","modified_gmt":"2023-08-02T20:48:10","slug":"three-cheers-for-hungary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-cheers-for-hungary\/","title":{"rendered":"Hip hip hooray for Hungary!"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthree-cheers-for-hungary%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1988960&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>This is a portion \u2064of a speech delivered \u200dby Michael Knowles at the Mathias Corvinus\u200d Collegium Feszt in Esztergom, Hungary, on July 28, 2023.<\/h2>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The \u200cliberals have levied all sorts of vague and preposterous attacks on Hungarian conservatives in recent years. But even the liberals can\u2019t dispute one particularly conspicuous achievement, which is Hungary\u2019s unique success at beginning to reverse the decades-long \u2062trend of demographic decline. And how\u200b have you done it? By supporting \u2062families. You\u2019ve provided financial and\u200b political support for\u200b people to get married and have babies. You\u2019ve provided more support the\u2062 more babies people have. You\u2019ve taken steps to protect babies in the womb. You\u2019ve prioritized\u200d the good of your citizens over the desires of foreigners beyond your borders. \u2064You\u2019ve defined what a marriage is and always must be and defended that definition.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s just common sense. I\u2019m not suggesting it\u2019s been easy, but it is simple enough. Egghead \u200bmasters-of-the-universe in far-distant capitals would have us\u2062 all believe that statecraft is too complex for ordinary patriots to understand. But politics, it turns\u200d out, is not rocket science, no\u2062 matter what the liberal technocrats would have us believe.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This pro-family, pro-people \u200dpolicy did not arise in \u200copposition to a neutral political \u2064order. It arose in opposition to an intentional liberal campaign to destroy the family \u2014 a powerful and longstanding political campaign\u2064 to destroy the \u2062family by redefining \u200dmarriage \u200cout of existence, discouraging and delaying marriage for those who still \u200cseek it, promoting contraception and \u201cplanned parenthood\u201d for married couples,\u2064 subsidizing the destruction of babies through abortion, reducing the ability of families to educate and raise \u200ctheir children \u200cas they \u200csee fit, and establishing an economic order that makes it ever more difficult for families to \u200bpay for their basic needs.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The liberal order pretends to be neutral, but it is not. Like all regimes, \u200dliberalism incentivizes certain behaviors \u200band discourages others. In the social sphere, liberalism encourages\u200c disordered and deviant\u2062 habits, most \u2064notably of late in the\u200d sexual realm, justified \u200cby an ever-degrading definition of individual \u200bfreedom. \u2064In the economic sphere, liberalism encourages selfish habits of \u200bproduction and consumption which so radically reject the notion of a \u200dcommon good that they leave as an inheritance to successive generations little more than mounting piles of\u200c debt.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Normal people throughout the West are waking up to the reality\u200c that\u200b what we were \u2063told would make us free has actually enslaved us. Of course it did: because the liberal conception of freedom directly contradicts the classical and Christian\u2064 understanding of \u2064freedom that built our civilization. Liberty, \u2063it turns out, is not the ability to do what we \u200dwish but the right to do what we ought. We\u2019ve fallen for the false freedom of the addict.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I know Hungary understands this fact. \u200bWhile countries around the West are \u200drushing to legalize all sorts of\u2062 drugs, from the Peruvian parsley \u2014 the old devil\u2019s lettuce \u2014\u2062 all the way up to the harder stuff, Hungary has held the line on drugs. As \u2062well you should. Drugs are the perfect \u2064way to understand how the liberal conception of liberty goes so wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The liberal view\u2063 is that liberty\u2063 is nothing more than\u2063 the\u200b ability to do whatever you\u2064 want whenever you want to do it. According to this view, a heroin addict\u200d in some alleyway in Amsterdam is the freest man in the world. As\u200d long as he\u2019s got a couple \u200bof bucks in his pocket\u200c and a place to \u200dshoot\u2063 dope without fear of being\u2062 arrested, \u200bthat man is the pinnacle of freedom. Right? No, of course not. The \u200bheroin addict isn\u2019t the freest man in the world; he\u2019s a slave. He\u2019s a slave to his \u2063appetites. He\u2019s a slave to his addiction. \u2062He couldn\u2019t stop \u2063himself from shooting up even if\u2063 he\u200d wanted to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is\u2063 why our Lord tells us that the man\u200c who sins\u2063 is a slave to \u200dsin. He tells us that, if we are to be free, we must take his yoke upon\u2062 us. Unlike\u2062 the yoke of sin, the wages of which are death, the yoke of Christ \u2014 of \u200btruth and\u200d goodness himself \u2014\u2064 is easy and the burden light. But it <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">is<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  a yoke. \u2062This is what St. Paul means when he tells us that we can\u200b be slaves either\u2062 to sin\u2064 or righteousness. \u2064And \u200dcrucially, this is what he\u2019s describing when \u2064he \u2063laments that the things \u2062that \u2063he wants to do \u2063he does not do, but the things he doesn\u2019t want to do, he does.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Modern liberalism,\u2064 for all its incessant blather about \u200bfree will, fails to grasp\u200b the defining \u200cfeature of the will, which is that it\u2019s split in two.\u200d We have a lower will, which is\u200c the appetite, and a higher will \u2014 the rational will \u2014 traditionally understood to mediate between the lower will and the divine will. The lower \u2063will\u200b tells us we\u2062 want to eat \u200dthat third dessert; the rational will tells us to put the cupcake down because we\u2019ll regret having \u200deaten it later. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">And our appetites,\u200c by the way, are not fixed in stone. If we\u200c give free rein to\u200b our basest passions and desires, they will become \u200bmore pronounced to the\u2064 point that our rational will won\u2019t be able to exert much control at all. That\u2019s the heroin addict. But if we follow our rational will and discipline our appetites, soon our\u2063 desires will change. Soon we won\u2019t have quite so \u200cstrong an affection \u200bfor\u2063 the fifth cupcake. \u2063Soon we won\u2019t have so strong a desire \u2063for things that are\u2062 liable to harm us. Soon enough, we might\u200b even develop tastes and appetites \u200cfor things that are actually good\u2064 for us. <\/span><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/show\/the-michael-knowles-show\">WATCH: The Michael Knowles\u2063 Show<\/a><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is, in theory, the purpose of liberal \u2063education \u2014\u201cliberal\u201d in the classical sense\u200b \u2014 literally training in freedom \u2014 the type of education that befits free\u200d men. I say \u201cin theory\u201d because today liberal\u200b arts education \u200btends \u2064to do precisely the opposite: it\u2019s a four-year bacchanal, at\u200b best, and, at worst, an initiation\u2062 ritual into a cult of \u200cabsurdities designed to stamp out the last shreds of common sense that a student might possess. \u200b <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/23-conservative-movies-that-defy-the-hollywood-trend\/\" title=\"23 Conservative Movies That Defy The Hollywood Trend\">modern university<\/a> is\u200b failing to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/virginia-public-school-teacher-describes-critical-race-theory-training-trickle-down-indoctrination\/\" title=\"Virginia Public School Teacher Describes Critical Race Theory Training: \u2018Trickle-Down Indoctrination\u2019\">train students<\/a> in \u2062the virtues that will help \u2064to make them free. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/three-cheers-for-hungary\/\" title=\"Hip hip hooray for Hungary!\">modern university primarily trains students<\/a>\u200b in vices that will keep them \u2064ignorant and enslaved.<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">are<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">  we going to say? And\u2064 believe?\u200c And teach? The answer can\u2019t be \u201ceverything,\u201d just as it can\u2019t be \u201cnothing.\u201d All societies for all of history have had \u2063some standards, norms, and taboos. All \u2064cultures perform rituals. All people worship something. As that great political philosopher Bob Dylan\u200d once observed, \u2064\u201cEverybody\u2019s gotta serve somebody.\u201d<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What a culture worships will define that culture. A culture that worships money will be materialistic. A culture that worships sex will be licentious. A culture that worships \u200cGod will \u2063be godlier.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So what does liberal culture worship?\u2062 Liberal culture\u2063 worships the\u200b self. At every turn, liberalism insists that we prioritize the\u200b self in all its subjectivity over every other consideration. When reality says that you\u2019re a man, but you yourself say you\u2019re a woman, well, we \u200bmust defer to\u2063 you. To self-conception. When you \u2063conceive a child but\u200d decide for\u2062 whatever reason that you don\u2019t want the baby; well, you must be given free\u2064 rein to do whatever monstrous act you\u200c see fit. When you no longer \u2063like your spouse,\u2062 to whom you vowed a lifelong commitment; well, you must go on and get a divorce. Parents getting old?\u2062 Stick them in a home.\u200c Don\u2019t care\u200c for your\u2062 nation? Fine! Who needs a nation? \u200cWho needs patriotism? You don\u2019t owe anything \u2062to your country.\u200c Whatever \u2063liberalism\u2062 meant \u200chalf a century ago, during the presidency \u200cof John F. Kennedy, it doesn\u2019t mean that today. Today, liberalism mocks the notion that you might ask what you\u2063 can do for \u2062your country. Today,\u200c liberalism impels its adherents to ask\u2063 only what your country\u200b can do for you. It\u2019s\u2062 all \u200dabout \u200cthe individual, all the way down. And a man wrapped up in himself\u2064 makes a small package indeed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This, I think, \u2062is why nothing you Hungarians have \u2062done has shocked and irked liberals throughout the West quite so much as your family policy. Both \u2063progressives on the Left and libertarians on the Right have\u200d attacked Hungary\u2019s\u2062 family policy alternately as\u2062 anti-feminist and as anti-<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-dan-bongino-on-the-future-of-parler-and-governments-role-in-tech\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Dan Bongino on the Future of Parler and Government\u2019s Role in Tech\">laissez-faire<\/a><\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-capitalist. In fairness, I \u200bsuppose they\u2019re right. The family policy, by rewarding\u200c families, undermines radical feminism, \u200dwhich opposes family. And\u2064 the\u200d policy is \u200banything \u2064but <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">laissez-faire<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. It takes a hands-on approach toward achieving a clearly \u200ddefined \u2063social end. But, \u200cof course, as we\u2019ve already discussed,\u200c supposedly <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">laissez-faire <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">liberalism is also more hands-on than \u200cliberals like to admit. While other nations throughout the\u200b West have adopted liberal policies that make society more individualistic\u200d \u2014 so successfully that those nations\u200b are all literally \u200bdying and, now, rely on mass migration to keep their economies afloat \u2014 Hungary has implemented a policy\u2062 to make society more family-focused.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What appears on the surface to be a tactical disagreement\u2062 about\u200c how to tinker with public policy\u200d to achieve outcomes we all desire, in fact, represents a fundamental philosophical disagreement over the basic structure\u200c and purpose of politics. For liberals, the basic unit of \u2063politics \u200cis the individual; for conservatives, the fundamental political unit is the family. For liberals, man is an \u2064atom; for conservatives, man is the\u200c political animal. For liberals, the\u200d purpose of politics is to maximize \u2063man\u2019s individual autonomy; for \u200cconservatives, it\u2019s to enable \u2062and encourage man\u2019s flourishing in accordance with his \u2063nature,\u2063 which is intrinsically social.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">It is no surprise, then, that the effect of liberal government has been to alienate citizens from virtually all bonds and especially from unchosen bonds: bonds to country, to family, even to ourselves.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/onelink.to\/dwapp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">CLICK HERE TO \u2062GET THE\u2062 DAILY \u2063WIRE APP<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his speech at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium Feszt in Esztergom, Hungary, on July 28, 2023, Michael Knowles highlighted the numerous baseless criticisms Hungarian conservatives faced from liberals. However, one undeniable accomplishment that even liberals cannot deny is Hungary&#8217;s exceptional uniqueness.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":224,"featured_media":1988961,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1988960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/224"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1988960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1988960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1988961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1988960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1988960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1988960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}