The psyche of an "anarchist": Eduardo Rózsa-Flores

I didn't intend to spend more time on this topic, but because a work written in Hungarian by Rózsa-Flores appeared in a far-right online paper today I thought that perhaps it might be useful to share some of its more salient points with English readers. The writing is entitled: "I have no machine gun" but if there is war there is war: A few quotes and I. This "last testament" is very long, and therefore I will focus on only those parts that I consider most revealing.

Rózsa-Flores opens with a quotation from Attila József (1905-1937), perhaps the most talented of all Hungarian poets. I should mention that Attila József committed suicide and to this day psychiatrists cannot quite decide whether he simply suffered from bouts of depression, whether he was a schizophrenic, or whether he had borderline personality disorder. In any case, at one point Attila József was a member of the illegal Hungarian communist party. He later became disillusioned. The poem Rózsa-Flores quotes here was written in 1927-28 when József was full of hatred towards the world  around him. He wrote in "Medáliák" (Medallions): "I have no machine gun, stone or arrow,/I would like to kill as all of us do."  After this introductionary quotation Rózsa-Flores continues: "One must kill, yes, kill, because for the rebuilding of the fatherland there must be mortar/And there is no better bond in the clay/In our fatherland's tortured soil/The blood of the enemy/As well as the blood of the hero." Then come two more quotations--one from the Hungarian romantic writer Mór Jókai and the other from the "Codex of the Samurais." In response Rózsa-Flores contemplates the day of victory when "we are the only ones left." But, he adds, this is not a good outcome because "for an elegant choreography we need an enemy."

Rózsa-Flores quotes Robert Schuller, the televangelist, who said that "tough times never last, but tough people do." That quotation seems to have inspired Rózsa-Flores to ask his followers to be hard and tough. Hard on the enemy. He praises war and "hates the silence of peace." If he didn't feel that way, he said, "I wouldn't stand here in the tropical heat, gun on my shoulder." (That pretty well tells me that Rózsa-Flores didn't go to Bolivia to do political work against Morales and the Bolivian left.) "I definitely don't like the quiet of peace because it is basely mendacious. After peace there will always be war and not the other way around. Peace is always a transitional period. It is good for gathering strength and learning. And the time always comes if we are expecting it. And then we must go and do what has to be done. And we must thank God that He counts on us and he chose us." The next quotation is from Sun Tzu's Art of War giving advice on how to proceed in really difficult situations on the battlefield. The message is that one ought to go forward even "in deadly circumstances." Rózsa-Flores's reaction: "We arrived on these deadly grounds. There is no place to retreat. To give up? Never! The only thing that remains is war."

He next cites two Hungarian sources: a stanza from the nineteenth-century poet János Arany and an excerpt from Géza Gárdonyi (1863-1922), a novelist. Both quotations deal with love of the fatherland. He continues: "This is an illness I never want to be cured of. Because who is that fool who during a love affair can think of anything else. The love of country is better and more than the love of a person because it is celestial, a gift of God, a wonderful fever even if it consumes us."

The next idea comes from "X," I assume an unnamed source: "We follow the eleventh commandment: smite your brethren before they smite thee." Rózsa-Flores continued: "My brethren? What brethren? His real name is base villainous foe!" Another man who obviously inspired Rózsa-Flores is Darren Shan who wrote: "We are foot soldiers in the power struggle of the worlds. We go where there is need for us and do what we must do. Everything else is secondary." Rózsa-Flores really liked this sentiment. "I cannot add anything to that," he said. "But by way of explanation: the shoemaker makes and repairs shoes, the baker bakes bread, etc. We are warriors of love, volunteers of freedom and soldiers of our fatherland. I don't know anything else. I don't even want to know anything else." He then quotes the St. Crispen's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V: "From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remembered, We few, we happy few, we band of brothers; for he to-day that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother." Rózsa-Flores adds: "I am filled with envy when I read these lines. So let's go! It's our time! One must only grasp the opportunity and we will be participants in the only and everlasting glory."

He also seems to have studied a Catholic poet who was a university student in Budapest at the end of the revolution and left Hungary for the west after its failure. The quotation is from István Keszei who remembered how he had felt himself to be an integral part of the nation for the first and perhaps the only time during the October 1956 revolution. Surely Rózsa-Flores in spite of his birth and death in Bolivia was a Hungarian nationalist: "What a beautiful thing to be a Hungarian, to live and die for the Fatherland. To become one with it, merge with it ... and strengthen the process that will get rid of the filth and together reach the clouds, the skies to be able to see how our God smiles upon us, Hungarians."

He also quotes Paulo Coelho more than once. The Coelho passage (translated from the Hungarian) goes like this: "If you are strong, don't be ashamed to show yourself as weak. In this case your enemy will throw caution to the wind." Rózsa-Flores: "I can hardly wait for the attack of the enemy. I know them. They know only themselves. When we start our fighting song and when we show our shining faces they will be struck by fear.... We are the ones who must win this war. Why? Because our armor is the love of God and because we fight Evil. Our time has arrived." He quotes Douglas MacArthur twice and then Schopenhauer. In conclusion he points out that he is not the first who has expressed these thoughts and "therefore I know that I'm on the right path." His final quotation by way of a postscript is from Simonides of Ceos: "Stranger, bring the message to the Spartans that here/We remain, obedient to their orders."

Anyone can judge on the basis of this writing what Rózsa-Flores actually wanted in Bolivia, or Hungary for that matter.

Comments

[speedy]

He loved Palestinians (see this on his own blog ).If he was a hero why he dont go in january in Ghaza to fight for them ? Maybee palestinians have no money to offer.

[Pihe]

maybe Palestina is not his home country....idiot

[speedy]

In the case you refer at Bolivia as his home country you are so smart to fight to secesion or for a united state?
Or you may think that Hungary must be also federalized or some parts must become independent for some reasons?

[Eva S. Balogh]

Speedy: "In the case you refer at Bolivia as his home country you are so smart to fight to secesion or for a united state?
Or you may think that Hungary must be also federalized or some parts must become independent for some reasons?"

What on earth are you talking about?

[sildenafil citrate]

take the right measures is the best way of action in this cases.