ABSTRACTS

Introduction

Lajos Eff: 
What Kind of Communication do we Need For Gentle Globalization?
"Naturally global interdependence boasts its gold medals and hides its faults. Meanwhile the communication of incoherent, deformed interests becomes amplified. At times the media displays the behavior of unbalanced dictators; exaggeration is one of the most popular professions."

Symbol

Language
"Language, whether written or spoken, is permeated with symbolic values: images, concepts, sounds, written expression, etc. in everything it expresses and, to a certain extent, in everything it doesn't." (Source: Jean Chevalier -- Alain Gheerbrant: Dictionnare des Symbols, Paris, 1973-74)

'Gentle Communication' and Society

József Zelnik: 
Irascibility and Thought, or: What's Wrong, Hungary?
"... Intellectual events in Hungary of the past decade, especially the absence of political concepts and the extent of irascibility, have truly surprised us. To this day we evade addressing the phenomenon, so obviously documented in the press, how the development of Hungarian political thinking is inhibited by irascibility, which permeates all. How high is the stake, that tension runs so high? What inhibitions, what unripe though process that never ripen into actions is it, which feeds this irascibility? What degenerated form of behavior born of unresolved conflict is this animosity? It is our responsibility to provide gentle and precise answers to these questions, asked louder and louder with time, or to at least press on with the questioning, perhaps wording the question a bit slower, in the hope of a more deliberated answer."

Csaba Vass: 
A Minimal Program for Gentle Communication. Human Rights of Communication
"The appearance of the concept of the freedom of communication during the late middle ages is at the same time the moment the concept of gentle communication was born."

Imre Baji Lázár: 
Crucified on a Frame
Circle, wheel, garden, fence, frame -- all key words of civilization and in Hungarian all from the same root. The movement of the man of old as he motions towards his tilled earth which he has declared his own by fencing it in: a Rousseau-like moment of the rise of civilisation. In the garden separated from the wild, order fenced off from chaos examines itself. Sphere of culture, yearly cycle, circle dance, breaking on the wheel. Garden of Eden, cemetery, English garden, garden-Hungary, and weaving frame, paradigm frame, frame of existence. Picture and frame belong together. 
The frame could be a picture frame, a situation, a biological process, a context, or the limit of a paradigm enclosing upon itself. Within what kind of framework does a vision or inspiration appear and within what framework can it be possessed?

Stephanus Sartorius: 
Tractatus Reclamus-Theologicus
A 'tract' on the 'theology of advertising'. 

Áron Tóbiás: 
László Németh and the Radio. Literature and History 1934-1935 
"To this day it is an interesting topic worth analysing how László Németh, the writer only 36 years old at the time, the one-man publisher of the journal Tanú and modest school doctor of the capital city by occupation, became director of the literary department of the Hungarian Radio, the most powerful cultural authority of the time? Were the more or less ripened seeds sown by the times, was his personality gripping, or were things arranged by blind faith... who knows? Perhaps all three factors played a part, along with several others."

Michael Marien: 
Non-Communication and the Future
Communication is idealistic.
"When we use the verb 'communicate' we think of passing on information which is comprehended and understood. The words 'communicator' and 'communicate' indicate our tendency to emphasise the positive. In other words, we assume that communication has actually taken place, much the same way we assume that where there is teaching there is learning ... .
Unfortunately it is not always so either in the area of communication or the area of education, a broader form of communication. In our seemingly well-educated society ignorance is general."

'Gentle Communication' and Ecology

Lajos György: 
General System Theory and Peaceful Interaction 
"General system theory is a philosophy of nature. 
It examines the fundamental components as well as The Whole, its relationships, interactions, self-contacting, and the process of recognition. The Whole is more than the total of its parts, its characteristics are not determined by the characteristics of the components. Causality is a complicated and complex network."

Tamás Cselószki: 
Media and Conservation 
International Outlook and Hungarian Experience 
"How can the attention of the population be drawn towards protecting the environment amidst the cacophony of the media market, and ad campaigns of companies which fundamentally endanger sustainable development? The article deals with the problems and opportunities of environmental communication and gives an insight into the opinion of Hungarian leaders of green organisations and conservationist journalists."

'Gentle Communication' and Ideology

Gyula (S) Sípos: 
Brief Opinion on the Calling and Renewal of the Hungarian Nation 
According to the author God granted every nation a calling which can be deciphered from historic records and the examination of the inspiration of ethnic culture. After their arrival to the Carpathian Basin the Magyars created a stable form of government, made peace between the people living in the area and wandering through it, made trade routes safe, and thus had a far reaching effect in its time. Its calling today could be the transformation of life in all of the Carpathian basin according to the will of Love.

Ways and Ways Out

Tibor Bartos: 
Out of the Water 
Today draught causes billions of forints worth of damages, while earlier floods and inland waters did the same. Will it always be like this? The author travelled the flooded country with a notepad in hand and a camera behind his back. His illuminating thoughts, however, go beyond the immediate environment: questions concerning the country's agriculture, environmental protection, poor financial status, our European hopes and fears, all churn in waters vital, yet often destructive. 
The people of the Sárköz, who have been coexisting with the "rhythm of the ebb and flow of the Danube and the Sárvíz, have always managed to reap benefits from both low and high waters. Until the end of the 18-th century they had no intention of standing in the way of flooding. Quite the opposite: their intention was to connect ever-increasing areas into this natural system of respiration."
(Bertalan Andrásfalvy)

Imre Márczi: 
Regarding Klebelsberg 
"The Hungarian homeland can only be preserved and once again lifted to greatness not with the sword, but with culture." The quote is from Klebelsberg Kunó, Minister of Education following World War I.

The Scenes of Our Lives

Focus on: Community Areas
In this column we continue the publication of excerpts from Pattern Language (Christopher Alexander: Pattern Language. Towns, Buildings, Construction. New York, 1981) which pertain to the chosen topic of the journal. 
"No social formation, be it family, a work group, or school group, could survive without the constant direct contact among its members. Buildings, which house human communities, support this contact by providing spaces used by everyone. The formation and positioning of these spaces has a decisive effect on the life of the group. Let us examine a good example of this through the introduction of the living room of a working family in Peru."

Ernő P. Szabó: 
Towards a New Atlantis. Hungarians at the Seventh International Architectural Exhibit in Venice
"Crisis, and not simply an architectural crisis, but a crisis of humanity, a dead end in the process of historical development, is how the vision of Massimiliano Fuksas, the outstanding architect and director of the exhibit can be summarised, from which he formed the main concept of the exhibit: 'Less aesthetics, more ethics!' And, he added to support his idea, a stronger and more complex relationship between architects and the 'users' of architectural products, the citizens, must be founded, for only by thinking together can the world-wide crisis of city development, be stopped."

Masters and Workshops 

László Hollós: 
Coming Home. Gábor Karátson and Change
"Not wanting to add a personal tint to this irregular 'portrait of a master', allow me to do so in the introduction. I've known Gábor Karátson for a long time, and I truly like him. I like his humanity that knows no limits, his comforting and deep wisdom, his view of life that emanates hope in the most hopeless of circumstances, his relentless honesty, his unusual, playful sense of humour. I could continue listing the things I like about him. I would be honoured if he would consider me his friend. ... At Gábor Karátson's request we wandered the magical landscapes of Transylvania along the Setétpatak. We wandered and talked."

Péter Medgyasszay: 
Building Nature. A discussion with Attila Ertsey 
Defencelessness, or autonomy? That is the final question.
A discussion on technical development, 'gentle technology', and the Hungarian Gentle Technology Foundation, of which Ertsey is president.

Eco-Grumbling

Magyargaszkár.hu. A Reader's Indictment on Self Destruction 
"I arrived back to Budapest from my brief trip to Madagascar just yesterday. I gave myself two months to do some historical research on the legendary Count Móricz Benyovszky. Actually, I would have really liked to take a long-awaited vacation. But then everything worked out very differently. I spent barely 4-5 days in Antananarivo, the capital of Madagascar, when I decided to cut the trip short and return to Budapest as soon as possible. Unfortunately everything felt strangely familiar."

Green Forum

László Csekei: 
Brighter Than the Sun. Conference on Renewable Energy
"On June 18, 2000, a symposium entitled 'Ecological Alternatives in Hungary II' took place at the Nádasdy manor in Nádasdladány as part of a series of events organised by the Nádasdy Foundation beginning in 1999. The symposium's chosen date -- the last Sunday before summer solstice -- was no accident: the topic of the conference was in accordance with Sun-day events held all over Europe."

Béla Borsos: 
A Year at Gyűrűfű. 1999-2000
"The experiment at Gyűrűfű, described in detail in the 22nd edition of Ökotáj, has both gained momentum and come to a standstill at the same time. The years of struggle have come to fruition and several plans, considered dreams at best, were materialised this past summer."

Gardening Without Limits. Professional Conference Series 
"A Hungarian enterprise has initiated an exemplary undertaking: with the aid of outstanding supporters it has organised a series of conferences intended to assist Hungarian gardening companies and entrepreneurs in building relationships in neighbouring countries and the whole of the Carpathian Basin. The ideology of the organisers is that the future of the Carpathian Basin rests on fruitful gardening, which in turn rests on dependable, successful human cooperation."

Bookshelf

Book Review of 
Kalle Lasn: Culture Jam -- The Uncooling of America
According to David C. Korten the book is an indispensable survival handbook for our race: how to face up to the suicidal consumer social attitude and its consequences.

The 'McDonaldization' of the World
Book review of: Paul Aričs: McDonald's Children
The famous French political scientist, Paul Aričs, has published several works on nutrition and its social aspects. In this work he systematically tears the ideology behind McDonald's to shreds, as well as its practical implementation. He examines each phenomenon individually using in-depth psychological analysis of McDonald's documents.

Book Review of : 
Marshall McLuhan: Understanding Media -- The Extension of Man 
"McLuhan's book, published again thirty years after its original publication, was a basic work on the state of mass communication, which was in its beginning stages of development at the time. Today it is considered a classic as is the terminology he created, such as 'world village', 'the age of information', and 'the medium is the message' ... According to his fans this work placed him in the same ranks with such great thinkers as Newton, Darwin, Freud, Einstein and Pavlov."

Book Review of: 
Roderick Frazier Nash: The History of Environmental Ethics
"The author, a professor of the history of environmental conservation in the United States, attempts to map the roots and development of environmental ethics and provide an overview of the relationship between liberal American tradition and the development of conservation."

EcoLibrary 

In this column we introduce works from the collection of our library, published abroad dealing with the theme of our current edition.