The world as we know it could be different and may therefore be changed. - Didier Fassin

Having earlier conducted some research on mental health issues, I was solicited in 2008 by the health minister, Roselyne Bachelot, to chair the national committee on suicide, but having observed how academics had served as “spoils of war” – the term in use – by the right-wing government of the time to legitimize its policies, I politely declined the proposal.

Commentators, when they exist, whether on paper, on waves, or increasingly online, are not representative or even indicative of the public, although they can be influential.

Speaking truth to power, as the motto goes – whether this power is academic or political – may be a perilous exercise.