The survival of some of the most characteristic features of the post-1968 normalization regime in contemporary Czech society is a remarkable phenomenon. How can it be, for example, that Czech university students today often express themselves in their written essays by using the same convoluted bureaucratic babble that was used by the Czechoslovak secret police and the communist authorities at a time when they were not even born?

It would appear that the ethos of a society develops much more slowly than one would think and that general social values and attitudes in Czech society, as they were formed in the traumatic "normalization" period, have proven to be much more resilient than many would have thought.

Czech newspapers, for one, still use propaganda campaigns even today. Often, these campaigns seem to be pushing a hidden agenda that becomes clear only months or years later. I do not wish to defend Prime Minister Stanislav Gross from the recent media accusations regarding the unclear financial circumstances by which he purchased his Prague flat. It has to be admitted that the clumsy and unconvincing way in which Gross has reacted to these accusations has only served to toss more gasoline onto the media fire.

Having said all that, I cannot avoid thinking that the campaign against Gross is hypocritical and artificial. When we look at the real estate market in Prague, it becomes clear that Gross' flat has been a rather modest investment. There are properties in Prague sold for up to Kč15 million (