ABSTRACTS


Introduction

Tamás Régheny:Tales of Abandonment
The thoughtless steps man takes towards the attainment of knowledge carries him into consistently emptier spaces, while life itself becomes a problem. Ego, Chance, Analysis – energies created by the cataclysms of the twentieth century were necessary to unbind these ties. The new initial in the Story is the House, symbol of Knowledge and Life. The capability for sustenance is carried by the intact weave of the house: Tradition.

Symbol

The Unicorn
'... P. H. Simon summarized the value of the symbol perfectly: The unicorn, through the symbolism of its horn, separates the polluted waters and brings to the surface those poisons which have broken the balance of the original state. The eternally pursued unicorn is invincible. Only a virgin – active purity itself – can touch it without being punished.....'

Tradition and Oikos

Endre Miklóssy: Thinkers of the Hungarian Century
'Hungarian common knowledge considers the twentieth century to be the time of its exclusion, its destruction, and its slow death. Yet the twentieth century has another face too: the greatest achievements of the Hungarian people took place during this time. It is one of these achievements, perhaps the most outstanding one, which I discuss in my article.'

Imre Baji Lázár: Iconograph.
Historical Portrait Gallery with Hidden Contours
What do people in the western world know about Hungary and the Hungarians? Most often either nothing or a variety of misconceptions often created or fuelled by Hollywood and the mass media. The author attempts to decipher how the popular and biased barbarian image of people from the East (for example Attila and the Huns) has become falsely associated with Hungarians, and the history of why the word Transylvania brings the name Dracula to mind, rather than the outstanding Art Nouveau architect Károly Kós.

Péter Kecskés: Blurred in the Mirror.
The Two Meanings of Tradition, Traditionality and Traditionalism
The essay strives to interpret the two different ways tradition is perceived in Hungary today: metaphysical traditionalism and organic thinking.

World-Building and World-Destruction.
Freemason Traditions in the World of Politics. Discussion with József Bakos
The discussion centers around the nature of Freemasonry and its role in world politics, with an emphasis on its relationship to the European Union. In Bakos's opinion the EU itself is a purely Masonic formula preceded by Kant's philosophical work Eternal Peace (Kant himself was a member of a Masonic lodge) in which he lays the foundation for what we call political correctness today.

Bulletin from the Front Lines – Blowing the Lid off the Bilderberg's
'Wouldn't you find it obvious that the media, in some shape or form, announces an event, an international conference, attended by the president of the World Bank, the director of the WTO, the queen of Holland, and the top director of the Xerox Company? Then, just so you know, this exclusive and closed group of highly influential media moguls, company presidents, bankers, and western politicians in the highest positions, the socalled Bilderberg group, meets once a year in secret, always at a different location, to negotiate the continuation of global capitalism....'

Attila Végh: Boater on the Moon. Essay on Tradition and Remembering
'My goal is to find out where tradition has hidden, where it is able to hide. For if it would have been destroyed without a trace, there would obviously be nothing to talk about... Tradition has somehow disappeared, yet in another way it is present. Let us go boating on the river between the two allegations of this contradiction.'

Gábor Karsai: Philosophy and Ecology
'In this article I would like to introduce two decisively twentieth century methods, schools or traditions of philosophy which could validate the exploration of the philosophical foundation of "ecological thinking" and a program of philosophical ecology, or ecological philosophy, which has produced many results already.'

David Abram: Merleau-Ponty and the Voice of the Earth
Ecologists and environmentalists, specialists practiced in environmental protection theories, rarely pay much attention to their direct emotional relationship with their surroundings. The author of this study writes about the eco-philosophical importance of this experience. Merleau-Ponty's carefully developed phenomenology depicts feeling as a creative and participatory activity, a type of discourse between the living body and its world, whether it takes place internally or in the form of an actual discussion.

Sándor Győri-Nagy: Signs of Observance.
The Codification of Constitutional Thinking in the Communicational Code of Hungarian Culture
'… It is because of this unbridled utilitarianism, exported all over the world from Europe, that we have reached a point where life itself on this earth is endangered. It is this fact that emphasizes the danger of Europe's preparation in paralyzing the operation of the continent's only landscape-preserving type culture, that of the Hungarians, who's every system of signs, and so the whole of its legal traditions, testifies to an ecological culture based on the vital principle. One, which offers an alternative of a historically founded relationship between a sustainable environment and social environment to the West's non-sustainable civilized example.'

András Lányi: Eco-Politics and Tradition
'Environmentalists are sharing the same fate as the legendary Mihály Kohlhaas, who merely wanted to take his two beautiful horses back from the reigning prince's bailiffs and doesn't understand how he became a dangerous rebel in the process.'

Botond Szathmári: Oikos and Pollution in Tibet
'...The environmental culture of the Tibetan people, similar to that of other traditional societies, knew what the Greek language expresses with the word oikos, which means house, household, the environment in which we live, and the temple. The essence of this concept is that nature and the micro-environment which we inhabit are just as sacred and reverend as the place of worship itself, meaning that the boundary between that which is sacred and that which is profane cannot be drawn sharply. Massive deforestation of the past few decades has totally destroyed Eastern-Tibet's ecosystem. The second major environmental problem is that the Chinese use the area of Tibet as an atomic waste depository...'

The Scenes of Our Lives

Fire
'Today the television is most often at the center of the home, though it is but a feeble substitute for what could be the living and glowing center of a room. Fire is a unique phenomenon, irreplaceable with anything else. Our desire for fire is almost as basic as our need for water. Fire – similar to trees, humans, a home, or the sky – is a touchstone for emotions.'

Symbolic Environment

Marcell Jankovics: The House of Stories – Eco-Tradition
'Words we use beginning with "eco" (ecology, economy, ecosystem, ecumenical etc.) have their root in the word "oikos". The ancient Greek oikos and the Latin "traditio", along with one of its sustainers, the story, as described in the article, are concepts with deep meaning in their own right. Do they connect with one another in any way? Do they strengthen each other? If they do, then at which level of meaning? This is what I strive to analyze in this article.'

The Power of the Invisible.
Music, Cult and Genius. Discussion with György Szabados
'The anthropology of music raises the most important general questions of spiritual preservability, the preservation of the essence. The outside world continuously bombards us with personal confrontations and challenges, spiritual and existential problems to be solved. Over and beyond these the most important question raised by spiritual man is how his own culture can be grasped, how it can be passed on and sustained. But what is culture? Can the path be set upon which time passes in a community, a culture?'

Masters and Workshops

To Grasp the Imagination, Not Power.
Discussion with András Lányi
The discussion is based on a television interview with the film director, author, philosopher and environmental activist on his life and work, with emphasis on the creation of a Settlement Science and Human Ecology department at the Social Sciences faculty of the University of Budapest, which would be the first of its kind in Eastern Europe.

Protect the Future. Society for our Natural and Cultural Heritage
'The Protection Society was formed in the spring of 2000 out of "justified anger" over the cyanide spill into the Tisza River. It never really spent neither time nor effort to define itself precisely. It is primarily a group of "green" intellectuals, albeit differing from others present on the civil green palette at its time of formation. What does the Protection Society protect? The environment worthy of man. It is a civil eco-political organization which deals primarily with environmental issues. The word "political" is used here in its original meaning: pursuing public affairs.'

Ecology and Ideology

Marcell Marton: The New Age
'Tradition and new age, tradition and the spirituality of the newest age, are found side by side on bookshelves and news stands, and among topics of various lectures. Yet nothing is quite as distant from each other as these two trains of thought and world view are (as always, there are exceptions). The new age is the virtual spirituality of the modern day, most often the syncretic organization of various different intellectual contents, a cross-eyed formalism of the (post)modern day. It seems to show the way out towards higher worlds, but throws the searching intellect in the opposite direction. The article throws light on this very basic difference through the analysis of various quotes and topic areas.'

Eco-Forum

In the Realm of the Eagle. Douglas Cardinal, Architect of the Spirit
'True creativity lays out there, in the undiscovered world, within the realm of the eagle – professes Douglas Cardinal, a member of the Native American Blackfoot nation. One of the most widely recognized organic architects, the Canadian Cardinal has managed to bridge the gap between Canada's Native American inheritance and infiltrating technology while creating a new and authentic language of form and expression. This article introduces both the architect and the thinker.'

Eco-Grumbling

Erik Szabó: Eco-Silence in Hungary at the Beginning of the 21st Century
'The ecological crisis in which we live can not only be seen, felt and breathed, it is primarily heard. There perhaps has never been as much noise as there is today. The only path leading towards a quieter world is the process which can also be called appeasement.'

Bookshelf

In Harmony with Nature. The Maze
On Adrian Fisher's and Georg Gerster's book The Art of the Maze. 'Ancient cultures prepared mazes to ease the identification of internal obstacles and deviations. For what is the essence of a maze? Being lost, losing consciousness, dying. By creating artificial masses man tries to help himself. Why do I depict it? Because if I arrange it into a form I can see it better. I have an overview.'

Landscape
'In Ian L.McHarg's book Design with Nature the author, a retired professor of Pennsylvania University's Landscaping and Regional Environmental Planning Office, introduces with an engineers precision and the implacability of a surgeon's scalpel, the complexity of "civilized" man's landscape as well as the logic of nature, followed by a description of the conflict between the two.'

Adapting to the Order of Nature
The Australian author Rosemary Morrow, in her book entitled Earth User's Guide to Permaculture, 'follows this train of thought and asks another question: How should we manage the environment entrusted us? In the World? How should we use, and what kind of relationship should we have with the environment (landscape, nature) under our care? Permaculture – or permanent agriculture – is not a recent invention.'

Ökotáj, 31–32. sz. 2003. 74–77. o.