主题：美国WASP统治的衰落？ -- 晨枫

新加坡《联合早报》上我最喜欢看的专栏作家于时雨新近写了一篇美国盎格鲁·萨克逊族群统治的衰落，提出一些有意思的观点。他的主要论据是：

1、最高法院法官第一次全部是非WASP，九名大法官中，六位是天主教徒，三名是犹太人（包括新人卡根）。

2、黑人总统奥巴马以下，美国宪法规定总统死亡或者无法履行责任时的替补序列：先是副总统“扶正”，现任副总统拜登是罗马天主教徒；再后是众议院议长，现任议长佩洛西也是罗马天主教徒；再下是参议院临时主席（President pro tempore），目前是夏威夷州日裔参议员井上建（Daniel Inouye）；一直要到第四名，才轮到可以算是WASP的国务卿希拉里·克林顿。

3、美国参议院多数党领袖哈里·里德是摩门教徒，众议院少数党领袖博纳（John Boehner）是罗马天主教徒，都不属于WASP族群。

4、《华尔街日报》月前引用调查，囊括WASP的美国基督教新教徒人口中，只有21%家庭年收入超过10万美元，同一比例在犹太族群中是46%，在代表性的亚裔中也超过了40%。在金权主义的美利坚，这一经济现实的含义不言而喻。

他认同哈佛法学院的犹太裔教授费尔德曼（Noah Feldman）的看法，认为这“乾坤倒转”开始于是二次大战前后开始主导美国“上层建筑”的“精英统治”（meritocracy，或译“能人统治”）原则。常春藤名校对非WASP开放，开放了天主教徒、犹太人的upward social mobility的通道。这倒是事实。电影《烈火战车》讲的是英国，但牛津、剑桥和常春藤差不多，也曾经是WASP的老窝，而且是男人WASP的地盘。现在看这电影，觉得有时光倒转的感觉。

美国WASP的衰落对美国国运有什么影响，是很有意思的一个话题。

其他国家不太熟，回头看看中国，大概有几个相似的例子。

时间最近的是满清。从太平天国开始，到辛亥以前，很多权力逐步被汉族控制，但最高权力还在满族手里。

再往前是西征的蒙古。比满族更差，到最后，几个号称成吉思汗接班人的，基本是突厥了，皮肤变白，改信安拉。

这种权力和资源的转移，并不是影响满清和蒙古的国运的主要因素。但是，在时间轴上看，这种转移和国运的变化确实有很大的相关性。看来是个值得探讨的问题。

外链出处

您同意他这篇文章的看法么？

勿论肤色信仰种族,这些人首先是美国人,其次是美国人,最后还是美国人

我这句问话看来也没有必要了

包括朝鲜、日本、越南、印度。他对美国和欧洲的观察更加喜欢一点。

那里面有一句名言，all animals are born equal, but some are more equal than others。用于美国人，尤其是WASP，这就太贴切了。

国民党被民进党大败，就是输在人口上啦。呵呵。搞得现在国民党的脊梁都不敢挺起来。因为人口比例的原因。

同样的原因，我对以色列的未来非常悲观。。。。

这是华尔街日报5月15日的原文，于时雨的文章引用了一些其中的数据，不过也有自己的补充，但是背景介绍的和华尔街日报的原文比还是太简单：

标题：That Bright, Dying Star, the American WASP

On a recent morning at the Links Club, New York's wood-paneled preserve of the old banking elite, a small crowd of white-haired members gathered for breakfast.

The talk around the tables, over poached eggs and toast, was of Europe and sovereign-debt markets. Some were quietly negotiating deals. The crowd was mostly older, though it included a smattering of 40-something and 50-something members.

While undeniably upper-crust, the scene, which included a Latin American and an Asian, was a far cry from the Links Club of 20 years ago, when doing business was forbidden and the strictly homogenous crowd of Protestant blue-bloods spent their mornings comparing golf scores and vacation homes.

"It's changed with the times," said one former member. "That's both our gain and our loss."

In the long downward spiral of what used to be known as America's Protestant Establishment, there have been several momentous milestones: Harvard's opening up its admissions policies after World War II. Corporate America's rush in the 1980s to bring more diversity to the corner office. Barack Obama's inauguration as the first African-American president.

History may reveal another milestone—Elena Kagan's nomination to the Supreme Court. If she is confirmed, the nation's nine most powerful judges will all be Catholic or Jewish, leaving the court without a Protestant member for the first time.

Of the 111 Supreme Court Justices who have served, 35 have been Episcopalians, making them the largest religious group on the court, according to court historians. The court's first non-Protestant was Catholic Justice Roger Taney, appointed by President Andrew Jackson in 1836.

President Barack Obama announced that Solicitor General Elena Kagan as his nominee to the Supreme Court.

Whether the court's religious makeup even matters in today's legal world has become a subject of hot debate. Yet by ushering in a Protestant-free court, Ms. Kagan is helping to sweep away some of the last vestiges of a group that ruled American politics, wealth and culture for much of the nation's history.

"The fact that we're going to zero Protestants in the court may not be as significant as the fact that her appointment perfectly reflects the decline of the Establishment, or the WASP Establishment, in America," said David Campbell, associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame.

Seen from the distance of time, the changes are stunning. In the 1960s, the vast majority of corporate managers were Protestant, according to E. Digby Baltzell's famous 1964 tome, "The Protestant Establishment."

The percentage of Protestants in Congress has dropped to 55% from 74% in 1961, according to Pew Forum. The corner offices of the top banks, once ruled by Rockefellers and Bakers, now include an Indian-American and the grandson of a Greek immigrant.

In old-money enclaves like Palm Beach, Fla., Nantucket, Mass., and Greenwich, Conn., WASPs are being priced out of their waterfront estates and displaced on their nonprofit boards by Jewish, Catholic and other non-Protestant entrepreneurs.

A survey by Pew Research found only 21% of mainline U.S. Protestants had income of $100,000 or more, compared with 46% of Jews and 42% of Hindus.

Until the early 1980s, when a flood of new wealth began to democratize the American elite, the path to power and status in America was straight and narrow. It usually began with old-line families in the lush estates of Greenwich, Boston, New York or Philadelphia and wound its way through New England boarding schools, on to Harvard or Yale and finally to the white-shoe law firms or banks of the Northeast or the corridors of power in Washington.

John J. McCloy—the Philadelphia-born, Harvard-educated lawyer and banker who served as assistant secretary of War during World War II and on several corporate boards, including Chase Manhattan Bank's—became known as "the Chairman of the Establishment."

His son, John J. McCloy II, a Connecticut-based venture capitalist, says Ms. Kagan's nomination is a sign of the nation's commendable meritocracy, but also a "dangerous departure" from Establishment mores, since Ms. Kagan, while a brilliant scholar, has no experience as a judge.

"I think we're losing something fundamental with the Establishment," he said. "The Establishment was really about people who became leaders because they were confident and highly competent in their areas."

The Protestant downfall can be attributed many things: the deregulation of markets, globalization, the rise of technology, the primacy of education and skills over family connections.

Yet many also point to the shifting dynamics of the faith itself, with mainline Protestantism giving way to the more fire-and-brimstone brands of Evangelicals in recent decades. The Episcopal Church, usually seen as the church of the Establishment, has seen some of the most pronounced declines in recent years.

Rev. Mark S. Sisk, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of New York, said the polarized landscape of religion today hasn't favored more moderate faiths like Episcopals.

"When it comes to elective office, I can't think of anyplace in the country where being a middle-of-the-road Episcopalian would be a great plus," he said.

He added, however, that tracking the ups and downs of socioreligious groups like WASPs was no longer relevant.

"That kind of calibration of 'what members of my team are on the front lines' seems to me to be an antique kind of thing to do," he said.

Meantime, WASP culture has been left to live out its days as a fashion statement, on the shelves of Ralph Lauren stores, or as a social badge at defiantly old-world clubs like the Knickerbocker Club in New York or the Bath and Tennis Club in Palm Beach.

In "The Protestant Establishment," Mr. Baltzell pointed to the prejudice and insularity of the elite as the eventual causes of its decline. "A crisis has developed in modern America largely because of the White-Anglo-Saxon Protestant establishment's unwillingness, or inability, to share and improve its upper-class traditions by continuously absorbing talented and distinguished members of minority groups into its privileged ranks."

Jamie Johnson, the documentary filmmaker and heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune, said he believed the destructive effects of wealth over multiple generations were also a factor.

"The generations of affluence bred a certain kind of casual, passive approach to life and wealth building," he said. "Lots of people just got lazy."

衰落的时候就不好说了。就算中国人入了美国籍的，除了美国“主流价值”外，肯定也有一些自己特定的利益和打算。

不知华裔这个比例是多少？华裔和印裔近年家庭收入涨落对比有数据吗？尤其是08金融危机以来。

我感觉还是有点普世腔、国际派。

控制国家的还是白人。天主教和新教在美国应该没什么大区别吧，好像老美天主教徒不像欧洲那样对教皇那么虔诚。那个比例以前wasp应该也很低吧，毕竟人口多得多。

赞同河里parishg的观点.

1、最高法院法官第一次全部是非WASP，九名大法官中，六位是天主教徒，三名是犹太人（包括新人卡根）。

-- Jews are integrated into WASPs. The top crust of Jewish community is well-accepted now. I saw many cases of inter-marriage (WASP+Jew) around me. All are from decent families.

-- 6 do not have WASP faces, but the Supreme Court has deeply the WASP culture there. "Rule of law" (everyone must bow before the law) and "due procedure" are two typical Anglo concepts. They are totally different from their corrupted Irish cousins back in Ireland.

2. 最高法院中居然没有白种盎格鲁·萨克逊新教徒（White Anglo-Saxon Protestant，简称WASP）的任何代表：九名大法官中，六位是天主教徒，三名是犹太人（包括新人卡根）。

--I am curious: who are the CIA or intelligence community Godfathers? Does American president really have all the power?

--Is there any coverage on CFR? People always joke that CFR is the true Department of State...

4、《华尔街日报》月前引用调查，囊括WASP的美国基督教新教徒人口中，只有21%家庭年收入超过10万美元，同一比例在犹太族群中是46%，在代表性的亚裔中也超过了40%。在金权主义的美利坚，这一经济现实的含义不言而喻。

--WASP old families have hidden their WEALTH through foundations or trusts. Many of my students grow up with all expenses paid through "trusts". If you only look at the ANNUAL LABOR INCOME(or earned income) flow of their parents, then you will reach the conclusion above in Chinese, which is a bit misleading.

My question: have we counted the INVESTMENT INCOME(passive income) reported NOT under the individual account, but under various "trusts"/family foundations??

hehe. Devils are there. Poor Chinese just started to get exposure to those games...

BTW, annual income does NOT equal WEALTH. The former is a flow variable and the latter is a stock variable. High annual labor income makes you more vulnerable to Uncle Sam's tax axe (at least 35% or even higher).

Final comment: Li Han Qiu has seris of articles comparing Anglos and Frenchmen. Englishmen are good at empire building because they are inclusive and expansive in their public administration: they offer career opportunity to non-English, shape them in their own culture and beliefs and gradually include them into their ruling clubs.

First example is the Scotsmen. Englishmen absorbed Scotland and shared imperial power with Scots. Scots worked hard to invade foreign lands to fight for the British global order: Canada is a perfect example. Most British soldiers that fought in Canada are Scots--just check Nova Scotia/Halifax.

Second example is the Indians--I mean real Indians back in India. The Indian elites are die-hard loyalists to the British empire--with their excellent british english and English education.

Third example is the American Italians, American Germans, American Irishmen. Historically, there were discrimination against all of them, with Italians and Irishmen suffering most in 19th century and early 20th century.

But look at the WWII American top commanders in 1920s:

Eisenhower/Ike: Supreme Commander of the Allied force, a German American from Texas.

Nimitz: Admiral and chief commander of the Pacific fleet, a German American. The guy who plotted the Midway success.

In the Bush Jr. administration, several key positions are controlled by Jewish elites and German Americans.

As to Italian Americans, there are many many examples... Irish Americans: check today's American generals.

Remember what I said: an expansive and integrative order of empire with certain meritcracy (never 100%).

Those German/Dutch/Irish/Italian Americans are very very different from their European cousins: they are WASPized culturally and ideologically. They are physicall non-Anglo, but culturally Angloized.

In sum, WASP has one top administration skill in their hand: they are good at building empires that are 3E: enticing, embracing and expansive.

Enticing: they use "better life"/"more freedom" to entice you to join. Unlike Frenchmen, who always pick on your poor French accent and treated you like underdogs, Englishmen create the mirage that if you work hard and do things in their ways, you can join them and "be like them with better life" (not always true).

Embracing: they embrace you through the market competition or open market. They embrace you by giving you "fair shot", you embrace their WASP global order by joining their game and playing by their rules.

Expansive: the Anglo global empire expanded globally which allows every passenger on the boat to share the prosperity. In the end, an Asian/European grew culturally into the WASP mode (think/behave/talk) and in the process expanded the WASP Anglo global order (economic/political/educational...) further on a global scale. Look at those expatriate managers of US multinationals in Asia and Europe....

Look at those proud Americans on July 4, then you fully understand my term 3E...

WASPs can shrink in head count, but their cultural grasp of American mainstream never fade away. They revived themselves by adding and marrying Jewish financial elites, Irish political elites and German industrial elites.

When Chinese are rich and powerful enough, both in States and in Asia, you might one day see some Asian faces in CFR/Country Club dinners. But those are, for sure, America-educated Ivy graduates "bananas".

WASPs are exclusive, but they are equally realistic and respecting wealth and power.