大约20年前，专栏作家戴维•布鲁克斯(David Brooks)抓住了时代精神。他在《布波族：一个社会新阶层的崛起》(Bobos in Paradise)一书中宣告了1960年代波西米亚激进分子和1980年代追逐金钱的布尔乔亚的结合。这种结合的代表就是克林顿夫妇(the Clintons)这样的人。美国的圣公会派精英们已被重视真才实学的建制派所取代。任何有才之士都可以加入。“各尽所能，按能分配。”布鲁克斯写道。
This elite disliked glitzy consumption and lowbrow culture. Then, as now, Donald Trump topped the list of pariahs. His victory has strengthened and shattered their worldview. Beneath the conviction about Mr Trump’s wrongness lurks an angst that dare not speak its name. Mr Trump is a distraction from a reckoning that cannot be postponed forever.
这些精英不喜欢奢华消费和低俗文化。那时，就像现在一样，唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)高居贱民名单榜首。他的胜利巩固、也粉碎了他们的世界观。在断言特朗普错了的背后，潜藏着一种不敢直接说出来的焦虑。特朗普将人们的注意力引开，让人们暂时忘记了终极拷问这回事，但这件事不能无限期推迟。
What will America’s elites see when they look inwards? The first will be the shock of self-recognition. Bourgeois bohemians thought they could have it both ways: capital accumulation and moral certainty with no trade-offs. If you studied hard and earned merit, there was plenty of room at the top.
当美国的精英们审视自己的内心时，他们会看到什么?首先将是自我认知带来的冲击。布(尔乔亚)波(希米亚)族认为他们可以兼顾：既积累资本，又占据道德优势，什么都不牺牲。如果你努力学习，获得了真才实学，社会顶层的位置多得很。
But there was a flaw in this thinking. America’s elites have stored more wealth than they can consume. This creates three problems for everyone else. First, elites invest their surpluses in replicating their advantages. Kids raised in poorer neighbourhoods with mediocre schools stand little chance. Their parents cannot match the social capital of their wealthier peers. The drawbridge is rising. The gap between the self image of meritocratic openness and reality is wide. Psychologists call this “self-discrepancy”. Economists call it barriers to entry.
但这种想法有一个缺陷。美国精英们积累了花不完的财富。这给其他人带来了三个问题。首先，精英们把多余的财富投资于复制自己的优势。在学校一般的非富人区长大的孩子，几乎没有机会跻身精英阶层。他们的父母不像富人那样拥有雄厚的社会资本。吊桥在收起。精英主义开放的自我形象与现实之间的差距是巨大的。心理学家称之为“自我差异”。经济学家称其为进入壁垒。
The second response to having such vast wealth is to create other kinds of scarcity. Since most people now have basic things — cars, smartphones and college education — material goods are no markers of success. Conspicuous consumption is played down. Scarce goods, such as an Ivy League degree or living in a neighbourhood where you do not need a car, are manically contested.
对拥有如此巨大财富的第二种反应，是创造其他种类的稀缺性。因为现在大多数人都拥有基本的物品——汽车、智能手机和大学教育——物质方面的东西不是成功的标志。炫耀性消费收敛了。人们激烈争夺的是稀缺商品，比如常青藤大学(Ivy League)的学位或居住在你不需要汽车的社区。
So are cultural advantages. America’s elites preach the gospel of a so-called stem education — science, technology, engineering and maths. But that is for other people. Social capital is about knowing what to say to whom and when, which is a sophisticated skill. Technical learning is for others. Children of the elites are learning how to raise money for philanthropic causes. Economists define this as a positional good. Sociologists call it virtue signalling. Mr Trump calls it political correctness.
文化优势也是一种。美国精英们宣扬的信条是所谓科学、科技、工程及数学(英文首字母缩写为STEM)教育。但那是给其他人的。社会资本体现在知道在何时对谁说什么——这是一门复杂的技艺。技能学习是留给别人的。精英们的孩子们在学习如何为慈善事业筹款。经济学家将此定义为地位商品(positional good)。社会学家称之为美德显示(virtue signalling)。特朗普称之为政治正确。
The third challenge is the hardest to fix. Since there is too much capital chasing too few investment opportunities — what Lawrence Summers, former US Treasury secretary, calls “secular stagnation” — today’s America is cursed by an educational arms race. The jobs available do not match the qualifications millennials are acquiring. There is nothing relaxing about being a member of today’s aspiring classes. Kids must study harder and for longer than their parents to find jobs that do not often repay the effort.
第三个挑战是最难解决的。由于有太多的资本追逐太少的投资机会——美国前财长劳伦斯•萨默斯(Lawrence Summers)称之为“长期性停滞”(secular stagnation)——如今，教育领域的“军备竞赛”成了美国难以摆脱的诅咒。现有的工作岗位与千禧一代所获得的文凭并不匹配。如今当一个成功人士阶层的子弟一点儿也不轻松。孩子们必须比他们的父母花更长时间、更努力地学习，才能找到工作，而这些工作往往对不起他们付出的努力。
The children of the wealthiest do not need student loans and live off their parents’ capital. The rest are struggling to justify the expense. It is as though they were led up to the promised land at sundown. The ratio of effort to outcome is rising. The more people study, the lower the returns to education. You always need more credentials, which most cannot afford. Instead of capital, losers accumulate frustration.
最富有群体的孩子不需要学生贷款，而是靠父母的资本过活。其余的人则难以证明这高昂的投入是值得的。就好像他们在日落之时被领向应许之地。投入与产出的比例正在上升。学习的人越多，教育的回报就越低。你总是需要更多的文凭，这是大多数人都负担不起的。输家得到的是挫折感，而不是资本。
Which brings us back to Mr Trump. During the 2016 presidential election campaign, he said: “I love the poorly educated.” It seemed like a crass sentiment. But it appealed to many because it was the opposite of what other politicians would say. Mr Trump’s tweets betray his semi-literacy. He uses the word “their” when he means “there”. He talks of “unpresidented” when he means “unprecedented”. He uses quotation marks where they are not meant to “be”.
这把我们带回到特朗普身上。在2016年总统竞选期间，他说：“我热爱没怎么受教育的人。”这似乎是一种粗鲁的情绪。但它吸引了很多人，因为这与其他政客的说法恰好相反。特朗普的推文暴露了他是个半文盲。他想说的是“there(在那里)”，写的却是“their(他/她/它们的)”。他想说的是“unprecedented(前所未有)”，写的却是“unpresidented(不总统)”。他在不该“有”引号的地方打引号。
Mr Trump’s antics are a comfort blanket to the cognitive elites. He validates our moral superiority. Yet he eats away at it too. Somewhere in our bourgeois subconscious is the realisation that Mr Trump is no accident. He holds up a cracked mirror to our illusions. When we mock him, he draws strength. When he provokes, we stumble. Yet we cannot help ourselves. He is deeply outrageous.
特朗普那滑稽反常的举止是知识精英们的一块安抚巾(comfort blanket)。他证实了我们的道德优越感。但他也侵蚀了这种道德优越感。在我们布尔乔亚潜意识中的某个地方，我们意识到特朗普并非偶然。他举着一面破碎的镜子，照出了我们的幻觉。当我们嘲笑他时，他就汲取力量。当他发起挑衅时，我们就犯错误。然而，我们情不自禁。他令人太无法容忍了。
Therein lies our deepest secret. We need Mr Trump just as he needs us. It is a ghastly symbiosis. Without Mr Trump, there would be no distraction. We might be forced to examine whether we live up to our own values. Do we love the highly educated? Do they deserve by virtue of credentials to be celebrated? Or should we revisit what we mean by a fair society? Answers sought by email or Twitter — but in correct English if you please.
我们隐藏得最深的秘密就在这里。我们需要特朗普，就像他需要我们一样。这是一种可怕的共生关系。没有特朗普，就没有人将大家的注意力引开了。我们也许会被迫审视自己是否坚守了自己的价值观。我们喜欢受教育程度高的人吗?他们是否因为握有文凭而值得赞美?还是我们应该重新审视我们所说的公平社会?请通过电子邮件或推特把你的答案告诉我——但最好使用正确的英语。
edward.luce@ft.com 译者/何黎
