"Obliged to contribute"

Letters from Turkey

My dear Aunt,

I am really very busy with other things... I am happy you love the new Fundamental Law of Hungary. I have no problem with that, it is simply not written in the style I like. 

The Law starts with an imperative (God bless the Hungarians :-) and then goes on saying that

"WE, THE MEMBERS OF THE HUNGARIAN NATION, …. with a sense of responsibility for every Hungarian, hereby proclaim...",

where the term Hungarian is not defined. It would not be problematic in the US: you are American if you are a citizen, and you are not, if not. In the Carpathian Basin it is a bit more complicated: "We promise to preserve the intellectual and spiritual unity of our nation torn apart in the storms of the last century." meaning naturally that by Hungarian the Fundamental Law means ethnicity and not citizenship. Therefore, „members of the Hungarian Nation” who wrote the law are not necessarily citizens of Hungary, and they feel responsible for every ethnic Hungarian in and outside of the country, which is fine. But then who has the sense of responsibility for the citizens – not necessarily Hungarians – of the country? And this is just the first sentence yet.

I am busy, apologies. Please read and interpret the following sentence which I picked at random:

„Every person shall be responsible for his or herself, and shall be obliged to contribute to the

performance of state and community tasks to the best of his or her abilities and potential.”

And this is not poor translation. And no, it is not from North Korea. This is „Article O” of the Hungarian Fundamental Law. So how is it? As far as I am concerned the most important task right now is to get the economy growing so we can get out of this mess. For that, Hungary has to pay the loans back in a timely manner. Shell I be obliged to contribute to this? Shell I be obliged to sell my belongings and transfer the money to the government as my contribution to the „performance of state … tasks”?

In my world citizens (not „Hungarians” in general) pay the government to solve the tasks of the state.

Look, I have no problem with this Law. I do not believe that on the ground of Article O any government would ever oblige me for anything. I just do not like the philosophy behind it. It is simply not my cup of tea. If it is yours, please, enjoy. But keep some honey at hand, just to make sure.

Best to you as always