牛津劍橋影響全球 牛橋白人男性的自白
We straight white Oxbridge-educated males who rule Britain are used to periodic rumblings of discontent from below. Now the transvestite artist Grayson Perry, writing in the New Statesman magazine, has savaged what he calls “Default Man”: “With their colourful textile phalluses hanging round their necks, they make up an overwhelming majority in government, in boardrooms and also in the media.” The writer Caitlin Moran half-jokes that she is the only working-class Briton with a newspaper column: “I have the entire quota.”
Indeed, the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission notes that 59 per cent of the British cabinet, three-quarters of senior judges, half of diplomats, etc, went to Oxbridge. The typical chief executive attended Oxbridge or Harvard, says business data firm Qlik. Few of these people are women. Even those of us who groom the lower slopes of the establishment – pundits, MPs, and so forth – tend to be Oxbridge men.
的確，英國社會流動和兒童貧困委員會(Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission)指出，59%的英國內閣成員、3/4的高級法官以及半數的外交官都是“牛橋”的畢業生，這樣的例子還可以繼續舉下去。商業數據公司Qlik稱，典型的首席執行官都上過“牛橋”或哈佛。以上各類崗位上極少有女人。即使是統治階級內打理較低級別事務的人——專家、議員等——往往也是“牛橋”畢業的男性。My caste produces the opinions that most British people are expected to swallow. However, the one topic we seldom discuss honestly is our own rule. So let me try to describe how it looks from up here.
我所在的階層創造出來的各種觀念，是大多數英國人應該要照單全收的。然而，有一個話題我們很少坦誠地進行討論，即我們自己的規則是什麼樣的。那麼，讓我來嘗試着作爲上層階級的一員描述一下我們的規則。
We didn’t have to work very hard to get here. Luckily, the British establishment doesn’t demand workaholism, except for a few months around exams. The gentleman dilettante is still honoured (see David Cameron).
擁有現在的地位無需我們當初非常努力。幸運的是，要成爲英國統治階層的一員無需是個工作狂，只有考期臨近的幾個月除外。紳士的業餘愛好依然受人尊敬（看看戴維•卡梅倫(David Cameron)就知道了）。Our competition to get into Oxbridge was mostly limited to other white upper-middle-class males. After that, we began recruiting each other. When I applied to the FT 20 years ago, I think I was interviewed only by white Oxbridge men, all of them straight (except for one who soon afterwards came out of the closet).
我們進入“牛橋”的競爭壓力，基本都限於中上階層白人男性之間。畢業後，我們便開始互相聘用。現在想來，20年前當我申請英國《金融時報》的工作時，面試我的人都是“牛橋”畢業的白人異性戀男性（只除了有一個不久後出櫃了）。My start in journalism was unimpressive but then I didn’t have much to prove: I already was a white Oxbridge male. Aged 28, I became a columnist at another British newspaper. Perry quotes the American writer John Scalzi, who “thought that being a straight white male was like playing the computer game called Life with the difficulty setting on ‘Easy’”.
剛進入新聞業這一行時，我沒有幹出多少令人刮目相看的成績，不過我也沒什麼需要證明的：我已經是一個“牛橋”畢業的白人男性了。28歲時，我成爲另外一家英國報紙的專欄作家。佩裏引用美國作家約翰•斯卡爾奇(John Scalzi)的話稱，“身爲一個白人異性戀男性，就好像在玩一個叫做‘人生’的電腦遊戲，而遊戲難度設定的是‘簡單’。”About the same time as I began work, a black friend started out at another newspaper. His news editor had little confidence in him, and my friend never got the career he wanted. Perhaps I now have his job.
幾乎在我參加工作的同時，一位黑人朋友也開始在另一家報紙工作。他的新聞編輯對他沒有什麼信心，我的朋友也始終未能得到那份他期待的事業。也許，我現在的工作本應該屬於他。We Oxbridge males help each other throughout life. Perry remarks that nobody talks about the “white middle-class community”. But it exists. Once, in a faraway land, I visited the British ambassador. Lo and behold, he was a straight white Oxbridge-educated male! He was like a friend I’d never met. He ended up giving me a briefing in his swimming pool. We Oxbridge males display exemplary class solidarity.
我們這類“牛橋”男，一輩子都會相互照應。佩裏評論稱，沒人討論這個“白人中產階級羣體”。但它確實存在。有一次，我去一個遙遠的地方拜訪了一位英國大使。你猜怎麼着，他竟然是從“牛橋”畢業的白人男性！我與他一見如故。最後，他在自己的游泳池裏回答了我的採訪。我們“牛橋”男是階級團結的模範。Our basic ideology is: trust in the system. After all, the system is run by chaps like me. I did my degree two minutes’ walk from Cameron’s college, and five minutes from the opposition leader Ed Miliband’s. I don’t identify with everyone in the establishment, because of intra-caste divides that are invisible to outsiders (for instance, Cameron is far posher than me) but the current popular rage at politicians bewilders me.
我們的基本觀念是：相信這個制度。畢竟，這個制度是由像我這樣的人管理的。在牛津大學，我當年上過的那個學院，到卡梅倫上過的學院步行只需兩分鐘，到反對黨領袖埃德•米利班德(Ed Miliband)的學院只需5分鐘。由於一些局外人看不到的階級內部差異（比如，卡梅倫比我要“上流”得多），我並不認同統治階級的每個人，但是近來針對政客的民憤讓我感覺困惑。Like the communist rulers in 1989, we white Oxbridge males cannot defend our dominance with arguments. Most of us know we didn’t get here through individual brilliance. Perry is wrong when he says, “Default Man will never admit to, or be fully aware of, the tribal advantages of his identity.” I’m very aware of those advantages. That’s why, although I currently have a decent job at a good newspaper, I feel very little sense of achievement. My dad went to Cambridge. I was born to be a minor establishment functionary. That’s also why I’m not desperate for my children to join the establishment. What would it prove?
像1989年的共產主義統治者一樣，我們“牛橋”男不能靠辯論來維護自己的統治地位。我們大多數人都知道，我們不是靠個人才華走到這個位置的。佩裏說，“‘默認男’永遠不會承認，或不會完全意識到，他的身份所帶來的出身優勢”，他錯了。我很清楚這些優勢。正因如此，儘管我目前在一家優秀的報紙有着一份十分體面的工作，我仍然沒什麼成就感。我父親上的是劍橋。我生來就應該當一個統治階級內的芝麻小官。這也是我並不迫切希望自己的孩子進入統治階層內的原因——進了又能證明什麼呢？Our caste is always changing, just enough to make sure that everything stays the same. Lately we’ve learnt to lament the suffering of the disadvantaged. (I’m told that even younger members of the kleptocratic Angolan elite have mastered this rhetoric.) Indeed, many of the most stirring attacks on inequality and sexism are now produced by Oxbridge males – but then we produce most attacks on most things in Britain.
我們這個階級總在不多不少地做一些改變，以剛好確保一切保持原樣。最近，我們學會了悲嘆弱勢羣體的痛苦。（我聽說，甚至連實行盜賊統治的安哥拉的精英階層年輕成員，也已經掌握了這套說辭。）的確，針對不平等和性別主義許多最爲犀利的抨擊，都出自“牛橋”男，不過話說回來，針對英國幾乎所有事情的大多數抨擊都出自我們這個羣體。Given our podium, many of us feel a responsibility to lament our own power. But it’s hard to feel this viscerally. I believe that other people should rule. However, I’d like to hang on to my own spot. We will not make the revolution – or as the British say, turkeys don’t vote for Christmas.
考慮到我們佔據了指揮台，我們中很多人對悲嘆我們自己擁有的權力感到義不容辭。但我們很難對此有深切體會。我相信其他人也應該擁有統治權。然而，我願意繼續待在我自己的位置上。我們不會發動革命——或者就像英國人常說的，火雞不會投票支持聖誕節。We have expanded our caste a little. We now recruit some non-whites (preferably Oxbridge men). We’ve even begun admitting Oxbridge women. We just sideline them professionally the moment they make the mistake of giving birth. Still, our caste has kept raising the age at which females hit the glass ceiling: from zero, to 17 once they were allowed proper education, to 21 when we let them into Oxbridge, and now to 38. That’s progress, of sorts.
我們把自己的階級圈擴大了一點。現在，我們會招募一些非白人（最好是“牛橋”男）。我們甚至已經開始接納“牛橋”女。我們只有在她們做出生孩子的錯誤決定時，纔會在職業上將她們踢出局。此外，我們階級不斷地擡高女性遇到“玻璃天花板”的年齡：從最初的0歲，到她們獲准得到不錯教育機會時的17歲，再到我們允許她們進入“牛橋”時的21歲，直到現在的38歲。這也是某種進步。Perry warns darkly that Default Man might not rule for ever: “Things may be changing.” But I think we’ll hang on for a while yet.
佩裏陰暗地警告稱，“默認男”也許不會永遠當權：“事情可能正在發生變化。”但是，我認爲我們還是會繼續當權一段時間的。
