« Prostration is not a way of life. It's an adaptation to death. »

« Be an adult. Every one of your actions is a judge of you. »

« In any case, many research directors are appointed directly by the Party, by the Elysée, the trade unions, or well-placed friends. The university is very similar to the media. Same coterie, same system of social reproduction, of internal legitimization. If you deviate, you go out. No disbelievers in our churches. "Excellence" should not escape Big Brother. NOTHING STANDARDIZES AS MUCH AS THE BIG SCHOOLS. With the ENA and other factories of well-becoming socio-democrats, including quotas of the underprivileged, we trace the sacred paths of dogma, leading straight to the top of the state. `...` We will have to try to be more discreet: the formatting of this school is so coarse that the jury of the 2011 class was moved by it. "Uniformity of behavior, even of thought." Tendency to "choose the apparent comfort of agreed formulas, taken up to the vocabulary of administrative or media modes `...` Difficulties in making a reasoned judgment on the reforms under way, in bringing comparison" ("Le Figaro," June 12, 2012). How do you get into the ENA? There is no scientific test. A test of written expression college level, some technocratic knowledge. Perhaps the hardest part is concentrating enough to retain all the administrative nonsense that offers admission. Some manage to miss it anyway, like Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, twice. But good relationships... You understand. (Ch. VI AT THE DRESSAGE SCHOOL p. 235-236) »