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.”
我们这类从牛津剑桥（Oxbridge，也称“牛桥”）毕业、统治着英国的白人异性恋男性，对定期从较低阶层发出的不满之声习以为常。如今，异装癖艺术家格雷森•佩里(Grayson Perry)在《新政治家》(The New Statesman)杂志上抨击他所谓的“默认男”(Default Man)时说:“他们脖子上垂着五颜六色象征着阳具的领带，占据着政府、董事会以及媒体绝大多数的席位。”作家凯特琳•莫兰(Caitlin Moran)半开玩笑地称自己是专栏作家中唯一一个来自工薪阶层的英国人：“我一人就占掉了全部配额。”
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.
的确，英国社会流动和儿童贫困委员会(Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission)指出，59%的英国内阁成员、3/4的高级法官以及半数的外交官都是“牛桥”的毕业生，这样的例子还可以继续举下去。商业数据公司Qlik称，典型的首席执行官都上过“牛桥”或哈佛。以上各类岗位上极少有女人。即使是统治阶级内打理较低级别事务的人——专家、议员等——往往也是“牛桥”毕业的男性。
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.
我所在的阶层创造出来的各种观念，是大多数英国人应该要照单全收的。然而，有一个话题我们很少坦诚地进行讨论，即我们自己的规则是什么样的。那么，让我来尝试着作为上层阶级的一员描述一下我们的规则。
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).
拥有现在的地位无需我们当初非常努力。幸运的是，要成为英国统治阶层的一员无需是个工作狂，只有考期临近的几个月除外。绅士的业余爱好依然受人尊敬（看看戴维•卡梅伦(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).
我们进入“牛桥”的竞争压力，基本都限于中上阶层白人男性之间。毕业后，我们便开始互相聘用。现在想来，20年前当我申请英国《金融时报》的工作时，面试我的人都是“牛桥”毕业的白人异性恋男性（只除了有一个不久后出柜了）。
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’”.
刚进入新闻业这一行时，我没有干出多少令人刮目相看的成绩，不过我也没什么需要证明的：我已经是一个“牛桥”毕业的白人男性了。28岁时，我成为另外一家英国报纸的专栏作家。佩里引用美国作家约翰•斯卡尔奇(John Scalzi)的话称，“身为一个白人异性恋男性，就好像在玩一个叫做‘人生’的电脑游戏，而游戏难度设定的是‘简单’。”
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.
几乎在我参加工作的同时，一位黑人朋友也开始在另一家报纸工作。他的新闻编辑对他没有什么信心，我的朋友也始终未能得到那份他期待的事业。也许，我现在的工作本应该属于他。
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.
我们这类“牛桥”男，一辈子都会相互照应。佩里评论称，没人讨论这个“白人中产阶级群体”。但它确实存在。有一次，我去一个遥远的地方拜访了一位英国大使。你猜怎么着，他竟然是从“牛桥”毕业的白人男性！我与他一见如故。最后，他在自己的游泳池里回答了我的采访。我们“牛桥”男是阶级团结的模范。
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.
我们的基本观念是：相信这个制度。毕竟，这个制度是由像我这样的人管理的。在牛津大学，我当年上过的那个学院，到卡梅伦上过的学院步行只需两分钟，到反对党领袖埃德•米利班德(Ed Miliband)的学院只需5分钟。由于一些局外人看不到的阶级内部差异（比如，卡梅伦比我要“上流”得多），我并不认同统治阶级的每个人，但是近来针对政客的民愤让我感觉困惑。
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年的共产主义统治者一样，我们“牛桥”男不能靠辩论来维护自己的统治地位。我们大多数人都知道，我们不是靠个人才华走到这个位置的。佩里说，“‘默认男’永远不会承认，或不会完全意识到，他的身份所带来的出身优势”，他错了。我很清楚这些优势。正因如此，尽管我目前在一家优秀的报纸有着一份十分体面的工作，我仍然没什么成就感。我父亲上的是剑桥。我生来就应该当一个统治阶级内的芝麻小官。这也是我并不迫切希望自己的孩子进入统治阶层内的原因——进了又能证明什么呢？
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.
我们这个阶级总在不多不少地做一些改变，以刚好确保一切保持原样。最近，我们学会了悲叹弱势群体的痛苦。（我听说，甚至连实行盗贼统治的安哥拉的精英阶层年轻成员，也已经掌握了这套说辞。）的确，针对不平等和性别主义许多最为犀利的抨击，都出自“牛桥”男，不过话说回来，针对英国几乎所有事情的大多数抨击都出自我们这个群体。
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.
考虑到我们占据了指挥台，我们中很多人对悲叹我们自己拥有的权力感到义不容辞。但我们很难对此有深切体会。我相信其他人也应该拥有统治权。然而，我愿意继续待在我自己的位置上。我们不会发动革命——或者就像英国人常说的，火鸡不会投票支持圣诞节。
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.
我们把自己的阶级圈扩大了一点。现在，我们会招募一些非白人（最好是“牛桥”男）。我们甚至已经开始接纳“牛桥”女。我们只有在她们做出生孩子的错误决定时，才会在职业上将她们踢出局。此外，我们阶级不断地抬高女性遇到“玻璃天花板”的年龄：从最初的0岁，到她们获准得到不错教育机会时的17岁，再到我们允许她们进入“牛桥”时的21岁，直到现在的38岁。这也是某种进步。
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.
佩里阴暗地警告称，“默认男”也许不会永远当权：“事情可能正在发生变化。”但是，我认为我们还是会继续当权一段时间的。