Thomas Piketty: “ The current protest highlights what is undoubtedly the most glaring failure of the current government: a catastrophic and unprecedented 20% drop in the budget per student since 2017.” Note that in France around 75% of students are enrolled in public universities and institutions. Related France’s pouvoir d’achat crisis [ French public universities are grappling with an estimated €8 billion shortfall, which has pushed nearly all 75 public institutions into deficit budgets]. Clarification: Roberts refers to the 75 core universities, not to all public universities, which are 160.
“The West won the world not by the superiority of its ideas or values or religion (to which few members of other civilizations were converted) but rather by its superiority in applying organized violence. Westerners often forget this fact; non-Westerners never do.” —Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilisation and the Remaking of the World Order, 1996, p. 51