That is so freaking WISE!! Dang, only someone smart enough to have 7 Masters (and stupid enough not to be able to use them to get ONE good-paying job) could come up with that!
Back in the Old Country, from pre-medieval times clear up until the bloody socialist revolutions of the early 1900s, in the societies of those of Hebraic derivation, learning was highly prized, and undertaken just for the sake of.....learning.
To be rich in knowledge but poor in material goods was considered praiseworthy.
Of course, that was an ideal attained by only a few; reality dictates that most people have to toil and sweat for a living, work to get things. But even those who became wealthy admired the spartan ascetic scholars for their seeming spiritual virtue.
When they emigrated to America in large numbers beginning during the 1880s, such overeducated men (they were usually always male) presented problems in this new place; they possessed no skills with which to earn a living, and so their wives had to do all the heavy lifting, both raising the children and bringing home the bacon.
It was about this time the matriarchial aspect of American Judaism evolved.
My good friend Doc's father was apparently born circa 1900-1925, and likely would've been part of that culture; learning only for the sake of learning, and working--reluctantly--in a menial job.
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That my good friend Doc didn't grow up in a stable two-parent family is news to me--thanks, Tess--as I always had the contrary impression. My good friend Doc doesn't exhibit the same sorts of burning resentment and rage that other primitives, most notably Skippy, growing up without their fathers, exhibit.
That does, at the same time, explain my good friend Doc's intense yearning to "belong."
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franksolich's message to my good friend Doc is this: you
aleady belong, you've
already been accepted, you've
already been assimilated, so no need to persist in believing the ancient outdated New Deal attitudes about Republicans as your father did. No need to hang around Democrats who hate your people and your culture.
Be of good cheer; release yourself of those bonds, and go out and vote (R) today.