In the beautiful campus of Yale University, there is a small building like a Greek temple, and several narrow windows are closed all the year round. The whole building is shrouded in mysterious colors. This humble building is the most mysterious and powerful homecoming site in America. Never open to the outside world, it has always maintained its own unique color and elite style, and there is also a chilling name called "skull and bones". Skull and bones has extremely mysterious membership rules, and even more daunting is its membership list. From this skull and bones, there are three American presidents, two Supreme Court justices, as well as numerous American congressmen and senior cabinet officials. 172 years later, skull and bones's members are almost everywhere, from the White House, Congress, cabinet ministries, the Supreme Court and even the Central Intelligence Agency.
When US President George W. Bush and Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry competed fiercely for the US presidency, Americans were surprised to find that although the two presidential candidates came from different parties and had different political views and programs, they both kept an amazing secret. They are all members of skull and bones. Kerry 1965 joined the club, and Bush entered skull and bones two years later. Mysterious skulls and bones began to surface.
The mysterious architecture of Yale campus
There are many secret alumni associations in Ivy League schools, and April and May are the time for these alumni associations to recruit new members every year. Yale has a beautiful spring in May, which may be the most beautiful season on Yale campus. Flowers are blooming everywhere, and the ancient campus is full of vitality. Freshmen like to play Frisbee on the grass together at this time, or play stereo all night and have a carnival in the open space of campus. However, there are a group of people who are too lazy to have fun. They are eager to get a pass and join a secret organization, so that they can even rise to the top. 1965 and 1967, Kerry and George W. Bush were introduced to the same secret class reunion as new members. When they entered this organization, they had already obtained a ticket to the peak of American power. This organization is skeletons and bones. It is also the most mysterious and powerful among more than a dozen secret student union organizations in Yale.
There is a brown rock building with a unique appearance and a style similar to that of a Greek temple on the high street of Yale University in the United States. This is the headquarters of skull and bones. The three-story building has a basement, and the vines on the brown outer wall are coiled. Members call it a "grave", and many helicopters can be parked on the roof. A famous saying is engraved on the side wall of the "tomb": "Who is an idiot and who is a wise man? Whether it is a beggar or a king, the ultimate destination is death. " The doors here are locked all the year round. Want to knock? If you are not a member of this reunion, even if you stand outside the door for three days and nights, you will not be moved. Outsiders know nothing about their internal activities and those of their members. It is said that the only time the tomb was invaded by outsiders was in 1876. All this makes skull and bones more mysterious.
Adhere to the tradition of the aristocratic elite
Every spring, 15 freshmen (Bai Gujing, Acura Knight, Boodle Boys, GB DBS——Boodle's Big Bones) are welcomed in the clubhouse in skull and bones. According to the membership requirements set by William Huntington Russell, the founder of the skull and bones (1809- 1885), the selected members must meet a series of almost harsh standards: first, they must come from wealthy families in the eastern United States, preferably British immigrants with noble blood. Secondly, we should have a good education, and it is best for middle schools to go to aristocratic boarding schools. Third, I like sports and am competitive. It is best to have military service experience. Skull and bones's candidate is a junior at Yale University, who just joined skull and bones in the year of graduation. There were racial and gender restrictions in early skull and bones. For example, Jews and blacks cannot join, and women cannot join. However, with the changes of the times, the restriction that skull and bones only accepts white men as members was impacted in the late 1980s. Skull and bones finally let Yale girls join 199 1.
Alexandra Robbins, an American journalist who once risked her life to report on skull and bones and wrote The Secret of the Tomb, once described skull and bones in an interview: "skull and bones's organization is very close and small. Only 15 people join the club every year, which means that only about 800 skull and bones members are alive at any time. Although the number is small, these people hold great power. Many skull and bones members are at the top of the US economic and political power pyramid. "
"It's really like a grave, there are no windows, and the granite walls won't be forgotten at a glance. Besides, I used to live next to this building and passed by here almost every day. As soon as the initiation ceremony is held, you can hear strange and creepy shouts coming from that building. " Ron rosenbaum is a columnist for The new york Observer. He has studied Skull and Bones. He wrote.