Miklós Bánffy
A few excerpts from the Miklós Bánffy’s Transylvania Trilogy (1934–1940) contain everything one needs to understand the evils of present-day American politics—and perhaps almost all (but not all) politics everywhere. Bánffy was himself a liberal politician. He was the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1921-1922.
from book 1 (They Were Counted)
“Among those present [members of a political party] only one thing counted, and that was the total destruction of Tisza [leader of opposing party] no matter what the cost, no matter how much blood was spilt, no matter if all Hungary perished!” (pp. 326–7)
“It was clear that no matter how hard he tried to discuss things with other members, whatever their political allegiances, he was answered only by a repetition of their party’s official policies which had already appeared in print a hundred times over. Politicians with party ties would shy away from him if he ever tried to discuss seriously what they really thought. Each man with whom he talked assumed at once that he was a secret envoy from one of the parties to which they themselves did not belong. This was extremely frustrating, although Balint was now starting to realize that it was natural and inevitable. A person who tried to see every side of every problem, who bent over backwards to take a fair and equitable view, was a suspect animal in the world of politics. What, to most politicians, could be more equivocal and therefore not to be trusted, than someone who admitted that those with contrary opinions might possibly also be right? Audiatur et altera pars (which might be translated as ‘There are two sides to every question’) held no attraction for committed party members for whom their own party's programme was no less than Revealed Truth, while that of their opponents was just as inevitably the work of the Devil. We are right and they are wrong, and that was that!
Thus it was, is now and ever shall be! And in the Hungary of the first decade of the twentieth century it was even more true than it was in other countries and at other times. (pp. 353–4)
“Most of what they said only echoed what they had read in the columns of the opposition newspapers, quoting, perhaps unintentionally, the most sonorous phrases from the previous days’ articles” (p. 423)
from book 2 (They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided)
“ …and so the delegates split into two opposing factions; not, of course, that they thought for a moment about the truth of the matter for now there was a party line to follow” (p. 345)
“His intervention had been taken as a piece of party political aggression and his disinterested proposition turned into a basis for party dissension” (p 346)
“Abady got up and left the room. He fled, not from the anger of the party whose representative had been attacked, but rather from those who had rallied to his side. This they had done, he was forced to accept, not because they thought he was right or that justice ought to be done, but solely out of party interest, for to them nothing else mattered.” (p. 347)
“The leaders of the different parties forming the Coalition fought against each other in a sort of vacuum, though they themselves still thought the battles were real and significant. They proclaimed the same slogans, for which they had once been worshipped as demigods, but now the effect was not the same. Those ideas which had once raised cheers of enthusiasm and support—the old questions of banking, customs, Hungarian sword-tassels for army officers etc. etc. etc.—now raised no more than disillusioned yawns. And the politicians were so wrapped up in their own importance that they never even noticed” (p. 460)
“The very day the verdict against Desy was proclaimed. Andrassy, Apponyi and Aladar Zichy endorsed every thing Desy had said; and the scandal thus reached monumental proportions. Even the foreign press reported the matter in full, though no one at home seemed to pause for a moment to consider how Hungary’s reputation abroad was being damaged. All these patriotic politicians seemed to think of was getting even with their opponents who had forced Parliament to accept the army estimates” (p. 753)
Bánffy, M. (1934/2013) The Transylvania Trilogy Vol. 1 They Were Counted
(London: Everyman).
Bánffy, M. (1937–40/2013) They Were Found Wanting and They Were Divided, The Transylvania Trilogy Vol. 2 (London: Everyman).