Leadership means acting as a guide for a group’s journey, according to János Csák, for­mer Hungarian ambassador and minister of culture and innovation in Hungary.

The President’s Office spon­sored Csák’s visit last week. He delivered two speeches: “Leadership: Virtues and Techniques” and “Offense vs. Defence: Challenges to West­ern Civilisation.”

In his first speech, he said it is important that leaders know who they are, where they come from, and where they are going. Good leaders pursue a good life, according to Csák.

“A good life means that it should be good for your fam­ily, wife, children, parents, and beyond that, friends and fellow citizens,” he said.

People should nurture the good life, not just contemplate it, according to Csák.

“If you want to be a lead­er, have a vision, and have a vision of the unity of order,” Csák said. “You cannot put the whole world in order. You can­not put all the American cities in order, but you can do it with your organization, with your family, with your community. And, if we are lucky, and many people do it, all of a sudden, we will see a great country.”

Junior Sophia Mandt said it is important for students to hear those like Csák, who are engaged in the arena of poli­tics.

“I love Hillsdale, and I love listening to the professors and stuff here because they very much know the contemplative life, but the active life matters too, and I don’t think it’s nec­essarily wise to just totally re­treat from it when you can’t just let our culture go to who­ever will take it in its place,” Mandt said.

In his second talk, deliv­ered on the 69th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution, Csák said he would give a re­alistic assessment of how the political state of affairs looks from a central European posi­tion in a global and European context.

“There is no individual freedom without constitu­tional freedom, and there is no constitutional freedom if there are no free citizens,” Csák said.

As a smaller nation, Hun­gary relies on big powers who are interested in preserving and respecting Hungarian in­terests, Csák said.

“We were in the Soviet em­pire between 1947 and 1990. That meant that central coun­tries became periphery, and there is no worse thing for a country than to be on the pe­riphery,” Csák said.

People must come to terms with their heritage and iden­tity, and choose to cherish it, according to Csák.

“In my opinion, if we in the West don’t respect our Ju­deo-Christian roots and our families, why would other people respect us? Why would our way of life be attractive to other people?” Csák asked at the talk.

Csák also spoke about the war going on in Hungary’s neighboring country, Ukraine.

If Hungary chooses to im­pose sanctions on Russia, then the Russians will counteract with their own measures, ac­cording to Csák.

“When I talk about the balancing act, our policy is to make as many players on the international ground to be in­terested in our success,” Csák said.

Junior Clara Bozzay said she walked away from Csák’s speech with a new under­standing of current events, primarily regarding the state of Central and Eastern Eu­rope.

“I think my biggest take­away from the lecture was how much we as Americans have left to do in order to preserve what we’ve built,” Bozzay said.