We need a complete regeneration.
Count Stephen Széchenyi
Speech to Hungarian chamber of magnates
April 22, 1840
Speech to Hungarian chamber of magnates
April 22, 1840
The story of an obscure, 19th
century Hungarian count who took it upon himself to rebuild his broken nation
may illustrate for us exactly what is missing on the part of both contenders in
our quadrennial political prizefight: a
spirit of sacrifice.
First, some back-story:
As
a young man, uber-wealthy Hungarian nobleman Istvan Széchenyi came across a
prophecy by the German writer Johann Gottfried Herder, written in 1791.
Herder said there would be no such thing as “Hungary”
in just 100 years. The country was too backward, too beset by problems. In effect, he was saying “you can’t get there
from here.”
Széchenyi
was struck as though by lightning by this pronouncement. Which was a bit
strange for someone who had spent a lot of time away from home, first in the
military and then traveling. As a
result, even his magyar language skills were just so-so, yet something stirred
within him: patriotism. Soon enough, he determined to set
about with his whole being, his intellect, imagination and capital, to make the
dire and somewhat cynical prophecy not so.
Today,
more than 200 years later, and half a world away, America
seems nearly as pressed on all sides as Hungary
was back in the 18th century. We may not face imminent demise,
but the problems we face are daunting.
And we are not on a path to solve them.
Consider
just these:
Finance.
Since it is constantly growing, our staggering debt – federal, state,
individual – has made real the threat of financial collapse. No, not this week, or next, perhaps, as so
many are fond of pointing out, but down the road the probabilities increase. That should still matter, but to so many, it
doesn’t, possibly because it would require sacrifice. There’s
that word again. Anathema to Washington. The Obama administration doesn’t’
“sacrifice,” it borrows. It has
increased the national debt more in four years than in the eight years of the
Bush administration, and that is really saying something. As recently as 2000, the national debt stood
at $5 trillion; by 2008, $9 trillion, now it is nearly $16 trillion. “Unsustainable” is the word we often hear
applied to this thriving malignancy, but even the most financially sober national
political candidate – Paul Ryan -- only proposes cutting the rate of growth of
the deficit near term versus the actual
deficit.
Széchenyi
would not have gone along with this. He
knew sound money was the foundation for prosperity. To promulgate his views, he wrote on credit
and other issues of political economy in three books (Credit, World, Stadium). He wanted a strong and solvent
nation. He called on his fellow
aristocrats to follow his lead for the good of the nation; it was a hard sell
then, he was regarded as a traitor to his class, but he did it.
One
cannot discuss our financial situation without considering our military policy,
and energy policy. Of the former, with 900 to 1,100 military bases around
the world (no one knows for sure), too many; on the latter, we have none. Széchenyi was very much opposed to war, by
the way. He knew its death and
destruction first hand, something none of the current four candidates do. None have served in the military.
Economy.
Let’s say the USA
was solvent, and the world, at peace everywhere. Still we have economic
competition vis-à-vis China,
Brazil, India,
Russia, and a
host of emerging nations. Széchenyi was concerned with production, he
wrote on agriculture, the biggest industry of the day, and promoted new methods
to increase production. He engineered a bridge spanning the Danube,
linking Buda and Pest, to stimulate trade, earning the
nickname, “Bridgeman.” The famous Széchenyi
Bridge still stands.
Széchenyi was first to navigate the Danube to the sea,
again to set the stage for more trade, a stronger Hungary.
Széchenyi had a vision; our incumbent president does not even seem to know who
creates a business.
Education.
American schoolchildren have fallen far behind their overseas
counterparts. Some third world nations have higher literacy rates than
the U.S. Széchenyi
knew the future belonged to the educated.
Not waiting for government action, he founded Hungary’s
National Academy of Sciences with funds from his own pocket. What
is the U.S.
plan? Very far down the list,
unfortunately.
Health.
None of the above matters if you aren’t alive. The obesity epidemic is a
modern-day equivalent of the bubonic plague. It is everywhere. So,
too, is heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer, arthritis. Some of this
is genetic, but some of it is environmental, brought on by consumption of excess
calories`. Factor in alcoholism, drug abuse and all the rest. America
is facing a health crisis, which precipitates a financial crisis to pay for
it. So very little of our
discussion goes into prevention of disease, so much of the popular imagination
goes into figuring out how to pay for new diseases instead of preventing them,
as best as one can.
What
drove The Count? A complex man,
motivated by many things, one of these was faith, Christianity. A Roman
Catholic, Széchenyi went to confession and received communion all his
life. Before undertaking an overseas trip with his Protestant friend,
Wesselényi, Széchenyi warned him it was his custom to pray on his knees each
night. But it didn’t end there, his faith required action, as he put it, to
join the battle of good and evil as an “active citizen.” Which
would mean addressing – straight-on – the aforementioned issues that beset us
all. Many in the faith community are
not even aware of the financial crisis, let alone demanding our feckless legislators
make necessary cuts, raise revenues, balance the scales, to invoke a Biblical
image. Faith for many is
compartmentalized. For Széchenyi, life
was all of one cloth.
Sacrifice,
then, to achieve necessary goals was second nature to him. It couldn’t be so easily put in a box and
forgotten.
Our
times cry out for a Széchenyi , a leader with the moral caliber to own up to
the problems at hand, face them squarely, not flinch and then to call for the
requisite sacrifices, the regeneration, the imagination to develop solutions,
the vision to see a better day, and the energy to make it all happen.
And
with the moral courage to call for sacrifice, on the part of all, not just
some. That’s the missing and catalytic
dimension so far in the race of 2012. The
concept of “nation,” of “all” versus the concept of “me.” Instead we have a class consciousness, an ‘us
versus them’ mentality, red vs. blue, left vs. right, versus a problem-solving
mentality. The talk radio hosts who
should know better fan the flames, better to earn personal profits. Again, the “me.” The Count put his personal gain last, the
betterment of his country first.
Széchenyi
the iconoclastic aristocrat, was anything but a narrow partisan, he was a
problem solver.
Instead
of a ‘kick the can down the road’ mentality, Széchenyi manifested a sense of
urgency.
For
the Count, the clock was ticking, and it was not for the next generation to
tackle the problems at hand, it was for him.
Széchenyi took responsibility. After
a lifetime of creativity and hard work, Széchenyi was successful enough to earn
the appellation “the greatest Hungarian” from another individual who could
himself qualify for the honor (Lajos Kossuth, his political rival, and leader
of the 1848 rebellion).
Right
now we need another “greatest,” leading an entire nation not just one
party. With real programs not slogans
about “change.” With the spirit of Széchenyi-type
sacrifice, and new fiscal soberness, and new urgency, our nation could attack
and overcome all its problems. We could
achieve a complete regeneration. We need
nothing less. Széchenyi shows us, 200
years later, it can be done.
John A. Sarkett is author of Extraordinary Comebacks: 201 Inspiring Stories of Courage, Triumph, and
Success and has re-published Stephen
Széchenyi And The Awakening Of Hungarian Nationalism, 1791-1841, by Dr.
Geo. Barany, originally from Princeton University Press. More at sarkett.com. For this and any other blog post, he solicits your comments.
