M S M A

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For folks of my generation in South India I don't have to explain that MSMA stands for Member, Society of Mutual Admiration.

Let me outright clarify that these Societies of Mutual Admiration are not to be confused with the formal, elected, registered, fee-paying Professional Societies like the Royal Society of which Feynman was so critical:

http://gpsastry.blogspot.com/2010/11/pope-peanut.html

MSMA is totally informal. It is not an honor conferred by a Letter or Convocation.

There is no office, no budget, no official entry criteria, no nothing...just an occasional unpremeditated accidental gathering here and there under mango trees to all appearances. Membership is not by Application or Invitation...it just happens. There are no advertised Meetings or Conferences...no minutes...nor hours for that matter.

These Mutual Admiration Societies are all over the world....in villages, towns, cities, campuses, as well as deserts (like Lowell Thomas & Lawrence of Arabia)...

These are not to be confused with Guilds of Artists or Artisans or Political, Social or Philanthropic Bodies.

They have no purposes to achieve...

Just Admire Mutually...bask and enjoy....

I have seen many of these at IIT KGP where:

The minimum number is 2 (unless you are a schizo..).

The optimum number is 3.

The maximum is 4.

Beyond that the Society undergoes Spontaneous Fission into two smaller Societies that tend to grow again.

This doesn't mean that the Gatherings of any Society are confined to the Number of Members....no, usually each Member is trailed by one or more incidentals, aspirants or even critics who are silenced silently...the treatment for disapproval is Silent Treatment (ST).

The Gatherings can last anything from ten minutes to half an hour...there is no Agenda...just humongous admiration and mild mention of recent conquests...the camaraderie and bonhomie is quiet and not boisterous like in Trade Guilds like Teachers Associations.

The unofficial but agreed entry criteria are: 1. Success 2. Fame 3. Notoriety...never Just Money.

Even Utter Failure in ALL Walks of Life is welcome...that is more than Fame in just one walk (or talk).

Well, let the Autocrat speak:

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http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/751/pg751.txt

...- If I belong to a Society of Mutual Admiration?--I blush to say
that I do not at this present moment.  I once did, however.  It was
the first association to which I ever heard the term applied; a
body of scientific young men in a great foreign city who admired
their teacher, and to some extent each other.  Many of them
deserved it; they have become famous since.  It amuses me to hear
the talk of one of those beings described by Thackeray -

"Letters four do form his name" -

about a social development which belongs to the very noblest stage
of civilization.  All generous companies of artists, authors,
philanthropists, men of science, are, or ought to be, Societies of
Mutual Admiration.  A man of genius, or any kind of superiority, is
not debarred from admiring the same quality in another, nor the
other from returning his admiration.  They may even associate
together and continue to think highly of each other.  And so of a
dozen such men, if any one place is fortunate enough to hold so
many.  The being referred to above assumes several false premises.
First, that men of talent necessarily hate each other.  Secondly,
that intimate knowledge or habitual association destroys our
admiration of persons whom we esteemed highly at a distance.
Thirdly, that a circle of clever fellows, who meet together to dine
and have a good time, have signed a constitutional compact to
glorify themselves and to put down him and the fraction of the
human race not belonging to their number.  Fourthly, that it is an
outrage that he is not asked to join them.

Here the company laughed a good deal, and the old gentleman who
sits opposite said, "That's it! that's it!".....

.....If the Mutuals have really nothing among them worth admiring, that
alters the question.  But if they are men with noble powers and
qualities, let me tell you, that, next to youthful love and family
affections, there is no human sentiment better than that which
unites the Societies of Mutual Admiration.  And what would
literature or art be without such associations?  Who can tell what
we owe to the Mutual Admiration Society of which Shakspeare, and
Ben Jonson, and Beaumont and Fletcher were members?  Or to that of
which Addison and Steele formed the centre, and which gave us the
Spectator?..... Such a society is the crown of a literary
metropolis; if a town has not material for it, and spirit and good
feeling enough to organize it, it is a mere caravansary, fit for a
man of genius to lodge in, but not to live in.  Foolish people hate
and dread and envy such an association of men of varied powers and
influence, because it is lofty, serene, impregnable, and, by the
necessity of the case, exclusive.

Wise ones are prouder of the title M. S. M. A. than of all their other honors put together.

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