Americans seem to want to read about national decline. The more dire the prediction, the more heated the prose, the more colourful the book title, the better. Conservative commentator Mark Steyn’s jeremiad After America: Get Ready for Armageddon made it to number four on the New York Times’s bestseller list. Peter D Kiernan’s Becoming China’s Bitch briefly topped the Amazon chart.
美国人似乎对讲述国家衰落的书很感兴趣。书中的预言越可怕,言辞越激烈,书名取得越抓人眼球,这样的书就越受欢迎。观点保守的评论人士马克•斯泰恩(Mark Steyn)充满悲观论调的新书《美国之后:准备迎接世界末日》(After America: Get Ready for Armageddon)登上了《纽约时报》(New York Times)畅销书排行榜的第四位。彼得•D•基尔南(Peter D Kiernan)所著《成为manbetx3.0 的婊子》(Becoming China’s Bitch)更是一度占据了亚马逊(Amazon)榜单的首位。