I've seen that before, almost professing a class distinction between people.
I cringed for the last 20 years when I was addressed by my rank or "Sir", just because I had gone to school. I understand the need for formality and respect of rank in a military organization - it's a discipline thing, tied in with customs and courtesies.
However, another thing makes me cringe:
I agree with Lee. When most of the people you work with hold advanced degrees or are on their way to such, "Doctor" becomes silly and nobody insists on it. However, this is true only "within the club". Total strangers without a doctorate or workers clearly outside the club, e.g. secretaries, maintenance personnel, undergraduate students, for that matter any non-doctoral student, are expected to maintain formality. Exceptions are only those whom I do consider personal friends and who have allowed me to treat them with reciprocal familiarity.
I just finished watching the re-release of Monty Python's Holy Grail. Cannoneer's demand that he be addressed with his formal title by undermensch outside the scholastic environment reminds me of the scene where King Arthur of the Britons was trying to exert authority on the mud collectors in the field. They laughed at him.
I've got a brother-in-law who has a doctorate in Pharmacy. He delights in taunting others who don't have that level of schooling. The guy's never been outside the UW school and hospital system. Myself, I've been everywhere, and seen and done things I wouldn't wish on my worst enemies. Ever dig up a mass grave that was created as a result of ethnic cleansing, just to emplace sensors alerting us when more bodies were dumped?
And the poor guy can't even change the air filter or spark plug in his lawnmower. I taught his 6 year old son to do it, and then the youngster taught his dad how to do a tune-up on the lawnmower. He cornered me later and reminded me that "he was not an imbecile". Of course not. Idiot savant is more like it.
These are the same folks who put their titles in their signature lines when the correspondence has absolutely nothing to do with their given profession. It's like they're trying to impress somebody. I *might* do it if I submit a rebuttal to an article in Air Force Magazine, otherwise I'm an everyday guy who prefers the first name thing. I've seen the "Mr. So-and-so" addressing actually cause problems in the VA hospital, two fellows with the same last name heading for the nurse who called it out.
