Slalom [Godille]

On the screen of public opinion, everyone plays his own film at the same time, in such a way that there is a generalised incoherent racket that is the background noise that absorbs any utterance. Thus there is no longer any shared knowledge that has an authoritative weight, and it is moreover the denunciation of its guardians, called “the elites”, that was able to be the winning platform of the leader of the leading democracy. For, in the place of truth, to “say what the people want to hear”, it is still necessary to have an idea of what the people wish. What it wishes for, however, is well-known: it wants equality, whether it is that of class or of sex, and that the force of the chief which is thus rendered totalitarian is transmitted directly to each of its troops, happiness. Sparta against Athens, an old story.

But, to quietly stay in our little domain, it is amusing to see that it seems ruled by the same device. How many times have I heard the good ladies of the School remind us that theory was only the way that young boys had to reassure themselves of the fact of knowing a little bit, and that the true boss is the unknown. Which is quite true — and in passing, let us admire the equality that is thus asserted between unconsciousses — except that our lady friends are incapable of discovering what it is that moves their unconscious knowledge, by virtue of a lack of theory. At the other extreme, we see groups that adhere to a mastery of knowledge, a domination of everything that moves and therefore of the unconscious. Let us admire, therefore, the equilibrium of our Association, its way of substituting, with humility, the slalom [godille] for Godot.