If you could, which institution, organization or establishment would you like to join?

[Julie4]

My dream is to be able to enter the French academy. And to be able to enter the Collège des Quatre-Nations 😍

https://youtu.be/-zOJVoC2zbo?si=h2mC-NJISFWNAtO_

[abc3643]

None...

... and I want to be clear why...

When you join ___something___ organized, two things happen:

1. You acquire a label. Something that identifies you as being a member of a group which immediately makes you disliked or targeted by people who do not like that group.
"McCarthyism" is alive and well because, really, it is a fundamental part of human nature and American politics easily proves that. All of this elevates your stress level and compromises your mental and physical health.

Put another way:

>>>>> You are subject to attack "from without". (Outside the organization.)

2. You reduce your freedom. This is because you must abide by the rules of the organization and have obligations of time, energy, and money to the organization. Furthermore, you are subject to the "judgment" of others within the organization. All of this elevates your stress level and compromises your mental and physical health.

Put another way:

>>>>> You are subject to attack "from within". (Inside the organization.)

============

So, the lesson to be learned is:

>>>>> Avoid joining anything. Maximize your freedom and happiness by avoiding joining anything.

[dynamicyandere]

Part of me wishes I had joined the United States Marine Corps.


The best employers I’ve worked under have been USMC veterans that were deployed on the battlefield, and both of them came out really well with solid leadership, iron discipline, laser focus, and just an aura that commands respect.


My current employer was a former USMC squad leader and has applied his military know-how and leadership ability to build multiple 7-figure companies.


It makes me wonder how much sharper I would be today, had I joined a decade ago.


I get along well with military vets. Morning runs before the sun rises, ice cold showers, lifting weights at the gym, learning martial arts, and firearms training are all things I’ve done on my own — embracing the warrior’s ethos.


My previous employer even asked if I was ex-military, haha. I told him no, I just have an appreciation for their principles and their service.

[provokeesmokee]

Did the Académie Français change its men-only policy?

[Julie4]

Yes.

[provokeesmokee]

Damn. About time. Go for it!

[Julie4]

I do not have the level to integrate lol. But how did you know this policy existed?

[provokeesmokee]

I did my schooling in French and l'Académie Français was talked about quite a bit during my last year of high school as we prepped for our DELT exams. We ridiculed the men only rule and the mandatory minimum age rule - especially because at the time there was massive debate about not allowing Anglicized words.

Other than those mentions I'm not familiar with the inner works of the institution, though.

[nightdrot]

That's a good question. I suppose, given my line of work, that the Heritage Foundation - a think tank - would be my choice. Also, the Ronald Reagan Institute, or if I were looking further afield, the Margaret Thatcher Foundation.

Yes, I AM predictable. I'm told it is what makes me so charming.

[RavVid]

Ah! Richelieu and Mazarin!! Ideal environments for you I am sure and doubtless you would do them proud.

As I watched the video I was reminded of an apartment I looked at in the the former French consulate in my city. Carved marble dripping everywhere. By the time I saw it the only apartments available where converted servant quarters and they were too damn small.

Still it would have been hard not to feel joy from the foyer. I imagine at the Academy Francaise you would have to feel rededicated to scholarship each time you walked through that entrance.

[Julie4]

Oh that's very kind 😊 but to be honest I don't deserve my place in such an establishment , I see the list of giants who have passed through this academy , I won't find myself in my place.

Exactly Richelieu and Mazarin, two masters. To be honest I'm personally a fan of this kind of architecture, I find it has an indefinable grandeur. Architecture that relates to the 17th century and the time of Louis XIV is simply sublime to me. When I compare it to today's architecture, I find that there is a decline.

[RavVid]

I certainly think it has an understated grandeur that makes it sublimely grandeur. If someone says they are a grand homme it is underwhelming and I think it is much the same in architecture. More means less a lot of the time.

I suspect a lot of the giantism is due to that environment inspiring greatness and I could see you there.

Totally agree modern architecture is insipid and mostly inspired by "how much". There are a couple I like locally because they are quirky and fun.

[Julie4]

for example, read this text from a former great academician. I will never be able to write as well 😍

"No doubt one day, in front of arid expanses or those reclaimed by the forest, no one will no longer fathom what intelligence man had imposed on the forms of the earth by raising the stones of Florence amidst the great sway of Tuscan olive trees. Nothing will remain of those palaces that saw Michelangelo pass by, exasperated by Raphael, nor the little cafes in Paris where Renoir sat with Cézanne, Van Gogh with Gauguin.

The Eternal of Solitude is no less a conqueror of dreams than of armies; and men have known all of this for as long as they have existed and known that they must die. [...] But is man obsessed with eternity or with escaping the inexorable dependence that death constantly reminds him of? A miserable survival that doesn't have the time to witness the already extinguished stars! But equally miserable nothingness if the millennia accumulated by the clay aren't enough to stifle the voice of a great artist from the moment he enters the grave...

There is no death invulnerable to a dialogue barely begun, and survival is not measured by duration; it is the shape that the victory of a man over destiny took, and this shape, once the man is gone, begins its unpredictable life. The victory that gave him existence will give him a voice that its author didn't know within it. These statues, more Egyptian than the Egyptians, more Christian than the Christians, more Michelangelo than Michelangelo - more human than the world and they wanted to be an irreducible truth, they will rustle with the thousand voices of the forest that the ages will draw from them. The glorious bodies are not those in the tomb.

[Julie4]

Humanism is not to say: 'What I have done, no animal could have done.' It is to say: 'We have refused what the beast desired in us, and we want to rediscover the human wherever we found what oppresses it.' Undoubtedly, for a believer, this long dialogue of metamorphoses and resurrections unites in a divine voice, because man only becomes human in the pursuit of his highest part; but it is beautiful that the animal that knows it must die wrests from the irony of nebulae the song of the constellations, and hurls it into the chance of centuries to which it will impart unknown words. In the evening where Rembrandt still sketches, all the illustrious Shadows, including those of the cave painters, follow with their gaze the hesitant hand that prepares their new survival or their new sleep... And this hand, with millennia accompanying its tremor in the twilight, trembles with one of the secret forms, and the highest, of the strength and honor of being human."

End

[RavVid]

Interesting writings that I need to think about - there is a will o the wisp aspect to life I find; it is there for you to grasp but when you open your hand there is nothing.

A friend is an excellent water colors painter but he doesn't accept he is very skilled. Being self critical is what enabled him to become skilled but he is too self critical to take joy in his skill. There is a balance between self criticism and pride in your skills. Sometimes you should accept others perceptions. And refuse to be intimidated by past masters because you only see them at the peak of their skills whilst you are still on your journey.

[exitseven]

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Rock and Roll is in my head, I can't stop until I'm dead.

[DJB72]

I'm 51. At my age you've learned the institutions you cover at 20 are bullshit. You can't eat a philosophy. I'd rather buy a smallholding and raise my own food.

[andreasderjuengere]

I'm more interested in persons who want to join ME! :)

''Organizations'' are not my interest.

[RyanEC]

I looked up the Collège des Quatre-nations it looks like something someone as educated as you would be interested in.

[Julie4]

Oh thanks You 😊

[RyanEC]

I was actually aware of the academy that regulates the rules of the French language but unaware of the rest.

[Julie4]

Most people don't even know this institution exists, so if you do, that's great.

to be honest I don't deserve my place in such an establishment , I see the list of giants who have passed through this academy , I won't find myself in my place.

[RyanEC]

It’s not impossible.
I think you are oftentimes too modest if I may say.

Out of curiosity by the way did you go to university or are you more self taught?

[Julie4]

I stopped my studies at 16 to start working.

[RyanEC]

If I may I would encourage you to go to university.

As I understand university is free in France.

I think you should follow your dreams.

[love_conquers_lust]

Maybe University of Munich. But I’m content with good ole Kansas State University.

[IslaTheWitch]

British Armed Forces

[KostasKouvalis]

The Explorer's Club

[Masterodd]

#1. Mosad

#2. French Foreign Legion

[msc545]

America's cup racing

[Mettbltt]

air forces

[MaxUsefull]

Havard