Sunday, October 25, 2009

Visionary blindness

When Louis XIV both dominated land and sea, he did not build a colonial empire. After brilliantly choosing his faithful strategists, and constructing a fantastic kingdom with plenty of richness for decadent wastefulness and impressive theatrics, he failed to execute a winning strategy for the future because he believed military dominance was rooted on land.

Ever since, France has attempted to catch up, with plenty of trumps in hand, and the occasional outburst of brilliant independence (as exemplified especially by the formidable De Gaulle). It is impressive how the country has maintained such vitality and spirit, while keeping its head buried in the ground.

At the present time, one can enumerate tens of themes on which it is trailing the competition (efficient administration, suburban policy, women's rights, integrating science and industry, a global strategy in higher education, language teaching, automotive industry, ...) which could easily be cured with the country's impressive resources and abilities, but which are not because it still seems to be digesting Louis' strategic mistake.

Only when one lives in a great nation can one feel the frustration of the waste of enormous collective possibilities.

French civil servants : to cut, or what to cut

While the French civil servant mass would seem to be too high (as advocated by the political right wing), cutting in railway, postal service, and especially education public employment is not the way out. Rather, the layered structure of public administration which makes for long pathways from the provincial base to the centralized political top should be trimmed. However, since it is this very backbone that permits the main man to effectively control and gain support from the whole of France, it is not the target of necessary reform. President Sarkozy often does seem to have the right central concept in mind, but too often fails to either be informed well enough, or to overcome political short term strategic reasoning to take the right decision on the ground. He should head the lesson from former shining examples in this department like the Roi Soleil, who managed to govern a country (without rapid means of communication or transport) with a handful of administrators.

Nobel style

A Nobel prize winner answers New York Times questions in an original style. Frank and humourful, Greider's tone struck me as exceptionally down to earth.

Saturday, October 3, 2009

Small cars, sports cars

The Top Gear team is funnier and more creative than most advertising companies. They make a point of using small cars for what they're built for : soccer.

No censorship ?

MIT uses uncensored student writing to attract prospective students according to the New York Times. That fact is newsworthy because (externally) uncensored writing is generally frowned upon, even when the writer applies a healthy dose of self-censorship. The internet has influenced modern society in uncountable ways, and it has laid bare some of its nastier habits. Indeed, we have gotten so used to censored inhibited writing that there is a public outcry the minute amateur writers produce short random texts. We sue people over three phrases on Facebook, and we fire them over an exclamation on Twitter. The internet gives contemporary society the chance to adapt its criteria for censorship to much milder ones. Hopefully, the much lower treshhold for producing public discourse will lead to more frank, higher level public debates.