ABSTRACT
This is the point about mannerism: the detachment from consciousness. "Do you think that communism is compatible with democracy?"-the unvarying, mechanical question. At about the third reply-"yes, socialism must become more democratic"-even a slow reporter might reach from his fixed consciousness to ask why "socialism" every time and not "communism", a distinction any socialist would understand. That would be one way into the crisis as the Czechs see it. The tiny political world, with its rigid assumptions, which English commentators now represent is an abuse of television. One realises how much it is so watching the invaluable Europa (BBC-2), which in its very contrast of national approaches and assumptions inhabits a modern as opposed to a fake-contemporary world.
