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Explaining the French Grandes Ecoles | 94 comments (94 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Explaining the French Grandes Ecoles (none / 0)
Well, clearly I don't have enough experience in France to offer useful counterpoints in the workplace.

In politics however, I would suggest to you that it is fairly clear that the system does produce various levels of groupthink. (The situation is just as bad in the UK, so this is not French-bashing.)

Since Agnes is not here to do so, I guess it falls to me to make the provocative comment. :-)

I am not sure you've made yourself neutral to the system you went through, perhaps it would be more productive for you to analyse the weaknesses of another system instead?

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sat Mar 25th, 2006 at 06:47:41 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Explaining the French Grandes Ecoles (4.00 / 2)
I am neutral to some extent, for a few reasons:

  • having done Polytechnique, I can safely critique it without beeing accused of sour grapes; I can also say nice (and true) things about it;

  • having done an unusual post graduate diploma (my economics/international politics PhD), I left the system at that time and am seen partly as an outsider (the strange guy who spent 3 years to get a nextra diploma worth less than the one he already had) - I also had little interaction with my alumni for a number of years;

  • as I don't use the alumni network at all, and as I have a very specialised job for which I don't need it, I don't really care for it (I may need to eat these words in the future, but the fact is that I wouldn't even know how to use it);

  • it's also my job to analyse political risk dispassionately...


In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sat Mar 25th, 2006 at 06:58:53 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Explaining the French Grandes Ecoles (none / 0)
How to answer this without seeming rude?

Maybe someone wiser than me can do so.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sat Mar 25th, 2006 at 07:15:35 PM EST
[ Parent ]
How about (none / 0)
"I hate it when someone matter-of-factly says 'I'm right' and actually is"?

or did you have something else in mind? ;-)

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes

by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 05:52:51 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: How about (none / 0)
I think afew pointed out the flaws in your conception better than I could already.
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 06:21:59 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: How about (none / 0)
I'll add:

You should read what he wrote, your own response and then consider how little the response you wrote goes with the attitude you evince in a lot of the other comments. Apply some of your own deconstruction to yourself.

And look, I am getting rude already. Enough.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 06:27:00 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: How about (none / 0)
I take rude better than implied (because I'm never sure what's implied), so just lay it all out.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 06:54:55 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Oh, Jérôme! (none / 1)
Your reasoning can be read as:

  • 1 - those who haven't done Polytechnique aren't entitled to "safely" criticise it*, because (I could say) they are a bunch of envious persons... So I can criticize it because I'm part of it.

  • 2 - But I'm not really part of it because:

  • 2.1 - I followed a different path than the usual one...

  • 2.2 - I do not socialise with my ex-(grande)schoolmates...

 *(accordingly, only a cardinal-archbishop can criticise the Catholic Church)

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet
by Melanchthon on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 07:36:38 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Oh, Jérôme! (none / 0)
  1. Well, when the criticism is "it's unfair that only archbishops have the power", the argument that those that made that criticism are just jealous or are unhappy that they don't have power does have weight. It's not criticising the Catholic Church, it's criticising the power of the bishops. And yes, such arguments have more weight when coming from an archbishop than from an outsider. All I'm saying is that it does have that weight in my case.

  2. was to explain why I may have a somewhat outsider's look on the whole thing, and thus a modicum of objectivity on the topic.

But I'm possibly blinded in ways I don't even realisze.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 07:55:48 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Re: Oh, Jérôme! (none / 0)
...when the criticism is "it's unfair that only archbishops have the power", the argument that those that made that criticism are just jealous or are unhappy that they don't have power does have weight.

Be careful, this kind of argument is too easily used by those in power or close to it. To illustrate what I mean, I will use reductio ad absurdum with your sentence:

"when the criticism is "it's unfair that only the aristocrats/the military junta members/ the nomenklatura have the power", the argument that those that made that criticism are just jealous or are unhappy that they don't have power does have weight...

"Dieu se rit des hommes qui se plaignent des conséquences alors qu'ils en chérissent les causes" Jacques-Bénigne Bossuet

by Melanchthon on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 08:25:32 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Yes, (none / 0)
that's true as well, of course.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
by Jerome a Paris (etg@eurotrib.com) on Sun Mar 26th, 2006 at 10:11:33 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Explaining the French Grandes Ecoles | 94 comments (94 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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