In our ever-changing world, it has become a major question of who our societies organize their daily lives according to, as well as the values upon which they make their decisions. This is true from family to nation to transnational alliances. One of the most polarizing issues, generating heated debates and determining the long-term future of the European Union, is linked to cultural and social values. To greatly simplify the issue, two important systems of argument are in tension with each other: one, in contrast to Böckenförde’s theory, starts from the premise that the neutral state authority of the worldview is able to maintain its validity even outside religious and metaphysical traditions, ie. It does not need a unifying bond before politics, and social cohesion – from which the legal system derives – is not necessarily based on moral or ethical grounds that precede the law. The central core of other philosophy – the cultural politician, monk and Piarist philosopher – was formulated by Gyula Cornis in his conception of culture based on a theory of values, in which he argued that the spiritual development of humanity lies in the recognition of universal or absolute values and not in the transcendence of values.
Values include human relations, the main rules of social interaction, and the driving forces of social action, and as such, they do indeed belong to the domain of ethics. In any case, we can talk about the perception of social values in the past decades on two levels: on the one hand, it appears in the speeches and actions of the elite (when they start pathological social engineering based on the assumption of secular moral principles), and at the level of society.
In many cases, the dialogue is difficult due to the fact that those on the side of value neutrality see values only as relics of the past, while the opposite side accuses them of the fact that value dialectics often represents too much value. cognitive challenge for them. The value-neutral doctrine sees itself as standing on a higher plane of humanity’s spiritual development and, recognizing this, requires that every person use its value-neutral language. However, the denial of society’s values not only makes perception difficult, but also understanding.
Instead of neutralizing our values, we must strive to reveal them if we are to know and understand the inner energies that run society.
Because values not only express the cultural principles that are considered important, good, and desirable by the given society, but also determine our relationship to society, as well as influence our actions, habits, and attitudes. The organizing, internally motivating, normative role of values determines which forms of behavior society considers acceptable and which can be condemned. So we can see that values have group-forming power, and they also play an important role in how a given society is separated from others. Learning about values helps to understand the moral basis of a society worthy of human beings, i.e. “what binds the world together,” as it is known in Ratzinger’s text in the address The strategy of non-recognition of values also leads to other practical problems, such as questioning the axiom of the legal system and the foundations of ethical behavior.
But how differently do Hungarians view their values compared to Western European countries?
Among other things, the Youth Research Institute sought an answer to this question Our values under siege In his research, the values orientation and society’s perception of the values of five European countries – in addition to Hungary, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy – were examined between February 11, 2022 and March 14. , 2022.
In the block discussing the values of society, there were also questions such as how citizens think about efforts to change society, as well as appropriate ways to treat certain social problems. The first question also seems interesting because, at present, the elite in the European space are making great efforts to transform societies according to certain progressive values, however, the data shows that the members of society, on the other hand, believe that society will have to be gradually reformed. In Hungary, compared to the average, far fewer people agree that society must be changed in a radical and revolutionary way, and more people believe that it must be protected from all kinds of disruptive forces.
For you…? (n = 5,000; percentage distribution)
Italy and France can be considered the societies most open to radical change, because according to a fifth of the respondents (23 and 21 percent), the organization of their society should be changed in a radical and revolutionary way, however, in the research, they were not asked in which direction they felt such change was necessary. Significantly, however, is that among the French, the percentage of those who feel definitely or rather that their situation is more difficult compared to that of the previous generation is the highest, and next to the Italians, they most often feel that the situation of the next generation will be more difficult. In other words, French and Italian respondents feel the most that things are going in the wrong direction, and the percentage of those who believe that radical change is necessary is the highest among them. Hungarians are the most satisfied with their situation and see that the country is moving in the right direction, and at the same time, the percentage of those who believe that society should be protected against all kinds of disruptive forces is the highest.
In general, is your current situation easier or more difficult than that of your parents at your age? (n = 5,000; percentage distribution)
In general, will your children’s situation be easier or more difficult than yours? If you don’t have children, think of the next generation, the children of today. (n = 5,000; percentage distribution)
The foundations of society: family, society, work
In the case of responses to social challenges, the European countries included in the research agree, despite slight differences of opinion, that poverty problems should be solved by job creation (85%) rather than aid (13%), and the future of humanity. Instead of technological development (20%) they prefer to rely on cooperation between people (73%), and demographic problems will be solved by having children (61%) instead of emigrating (24%).
In the UK (53 percent) and Italy (53 percent), people are more than average (39 percent) likely to agree with the argument that society should be built on a variety of gender orientations, and among the English they are also more. More likely than average to agree with the demographic problem, a higher proportion would solve it with immigration (33 percent), but even so, more people think having children (40 percent) might be the key. And in Germany, more than average (13%) believe in the beneficial effect of help (25%).
If you could decide, would you like…? (n = 5,000; percentage distribution)
Therefore, the results of the research contained many surprises compared to the realistic picture created by the major global media. It is also interesting that in Hungary, which is considered one of the most secular countries in the region in the public mind, compared to average (44 percent) – and also compared to other countries examined – a higher percentage (53 percent) of Hungarians would maintain The role of churches in society. The social presence of Christian values has also emerged alongside other issues. More than a quarter of Hungarians support religious organizations and events in some form. Among the countries examined, only Italy leads by three percentage points. Among the respondents, religion as a value is also the most important for Hungarians and Italians, although it is still among the least important after politics.
The author is a researcher at the MCC Institute for Youth Research.
Opinion articles do not necessarily reflect the position of the index editors.
(Cover Photo:
Ákos Stiller/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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