The Hungarian Student, 1958 (3. évfolyam, 1-2. szám)
1958-10-01 / 1. szám
exaggerate. The Gran Logia supposedly has one million members. If this is so, then ninetyfive percent of all Mexican men from the lower middle through the upper classes belong to the Masons—and my personal experiences do not belie these statistics. Mexican intellectuals are receptive to all kinds of ideologies, schools, groups, and trends of thought. While I was in Hungary I was convinced that the actual existence of Trotskyists was as true as the existence of the devil, and that both simply served the purpose of frightening "believers” away from committing sins and keeping them from ideological aberrations. In Mexico, however, I found very live and real Trotskyist groups, and it is fate’s irony that the Educators Union, to which I belong, is the only union in Mexico which is under primarily Trotskyist influence. But there are also organized Blanquist, Lassale-ist and S. R. groups, primarily composed of intellectuals. There are also communities such as Rosicrucian convents, theosophical societies, Buddhist groups and cabbalist lodges. Psychoanalysis has flourished for the past twenty years. The central problem of education, both in the home and at schools, results from the permissive approach to raising children. I myself witnessed a thirteen-yearold Hungarian-Mexican caballero who, when he arrived home at eleven p.m. instead of the expected seven, told his angry mother, who was ready to punish him, “Don’t hit me, mom, or I’ll have complejos” (complexes). The most characteristic trait of Mexico’s cultural and intellectual life is the aficion, the amateur. Nowhere in the world can one find among clerical workers, dentists, lawyers, civil servants, engineers, bookkeepers, as many poets, Slavic experts, theater historians, Egyptologists, or mystic philosophers, as in Mexico. These gentlemen usually work at their jobs to finance their hobbies and one therefore observes such combinations as a trecento expertdentist or an Egyptologist-obstetrician. I think that although unusual, this system approaches a humanistic life and a cultural ideal. * • • Coercion and Careers BY L. B. In 1948 two major Hungarian Institutes of Psychology offered courses in career guidance, but these courses were discontinued that year by Government order. The reason given for this step was realistic. From that time on a young person’s career was to be determined not by his likes and dislikes, his psychological aptitude or his free choice, but simply and strictly by social necessity. This social necessity closely followed the planned economy’s program, which often proved to be unbalanced and even more often did not take the real possibilities into account. It might be said that the aim was to satisfy not a true but a fictitious need. On paper and in theory this may not sound too tragic, but proves so in practice. In actuality, the choice of career is influenced not only by “social need” but also, and to a very great extent, by the class struggle. The political regime, taking advantage of the unfortunate situation which existed in Hungary before 1945—when only a small number of young people from peasant and worker families could afford a higher or college education —established a ratio at the universities which considerably reduced the number of students whose families were intelligentsia. Thus, in the “national interest,” a large segment of Hungarian youth must forego because of their background the possibility of higher education, which permanently prevents them from choosing a career requiring a college degree. Of course, university officials never refuse applications oá the grounds that the applicant’s father was a, physician or a lawyer. Instead, they have official phrases, which most often begin: “Due to the lack of space ..." Of course, there are also more involved methods of .rejection, such as admission tests. Before undergoing such a test the high school graduate must petition the administrative offices of the university to be admitted to the examination. When the time for the tests arrives, the examiner has before him a complete resumé of the student’s past; family background, political attitude, etc. The student has to achieve a certain number of points at these admission tests. The point value of each question is determined by the type of question and the quality of the answer. However, there is another determining factor, a mathematical October 1958 11
