"Professional men, they have no cares; whatever happens, they get theirs"
About this Quote
A Nash couplet like this lands with the grin of a man politely committing arson. "Professional men" sounds flattering at first, the kind of phrase you’d expect in a Rotary Club toast. Then he twists it: they "have no cares" not because they’re serene sages, but because the system is built to make sure "whatever happens, they get theirs". The rhyme is doing moral work. It makes the line singable, almost harmless, while smuggling in a blunt accusation about insulation and entitlement.
Nash’s specific intent is less to indict one villain than to puncture a whole class posture: the cultivated calm of the credentialed. "Professional" here isn’t about competence; it’s about membership. Doctors, lawyers, executives, the respectable intermediaries of American life - people who, in the mid-century boom, could treat crises as weather. Even when disaster hits, the salary still clears, the fees still accrue, the safety net is privately purchased.
The subtext is that their lack of "cares" is not emotional maturity but moral hazard. If your downside risk is limited, you can afford to be pragmatic, even detached. Nash frames that detachment as a kind of quiet corruption: a society where outcomes don’t discipline the powerful, they reward them.
It’s also a sly jab at the reader’s complicity. The line invites a laugh, then asks who exactly is included in "they". If you’re laughing comfortably, Nash is already halfway to "gotcha."
Nash’s specific intent is less to indict one villain than to puncture a whole class posture: the cultivated calm of the credentialed. "Professional" here isn’t about competence; it’s about membership. Doctors, lawyers, executives, the respectable intermediaries of American life - people who, in the mid-century boom, could treat crises as weather. Even when disaster hits, the salary still clears, the fees still accrue, the safety net is privately purchased.
The subtext is that their lack of "cares" is not emotional maturity but moral hazard. If your downside risk is limited, you can afford to be pragmatic, even detached. Nash frames that detachment as a kind of quiet corruption: a society where outcomes don’t discipline the powerful, they reward them.
It’s also a sly jab at the reader’s complicity. The line invites a laugh, then asks who exactly is included in "they". If you’re laughing comfortably, Nash is already halfway to "gotcha."
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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