Our National Minority and Science

László Öllös 342.72/.73 Our National Minority and Science 172.15 323.1 Keywords: freedom, rights, national identity, public opinion, scientism.

National identity had also meant the socialization of scientific and artistic ele­ments of human identity, and, with it, the emergence of modern political commu­nity. The former feudal loyalty and faith ties have been modified by such knowledge and skills that provide the opportunity even for people previously considered to be simple, to rethink their society and state as a whole. Still, even with this limitation, national freedom becomes cultural freedom thank to the possibility of cultural advancement. But, cultural freedom has a specific weakness. Particularly, cultural freedom can be jeopardized even if the first generation human rights, in their classical sense, are guaranteed by the state, and it can as well be ensured even if human rights are not guaranteed for anybody at all. It means that even dictator­ships can declare that they protect the national rights of their citizens against the oppressive intentions of other nations, as they provide for their education in the mother tongue, make possible that many elements of their popular culture become part of high culture supported by the state, and, instead of previous despise, they appreciate, what more, occasionally even promote the preservation of their customs and traditions, and make some of their symbols common with those of the state. On the contrary, constitutional democracies can also oppress those whom they do not perceive as carriers of national culture considered as primary by the state. Although the state formally respects their human rights, but it interprets them in such a way that their culture, language and other important characteristic features can never become equal to those of the majority. So, within minority culture constrained in this unequal position, high culture and scientism should be made subject of public discourse, i.e. become a public domain while it is not an objective of the nation state´s main forces. The given national minority has to address all the three challenges. One of them is the question how to examine the past, present and future of its own community. The second, how to present the results to its own people? And the third, how to get the message to the national majority´s public opinion. The founders of the Forum Minority Research Institute in 1986 faced all these questions.