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.
美國人似乎對講述國家衰落的書很感興趣。書中的預言越可怕,言辭越激烈,書名取得越抓人眼球,這樣的書就越受歡迎。觀點保守的評論人士馬克•斯泰恩(Mark Steyn)充滿悲觀論調的新書《美國之後:準備迎接世界末日》(After America: Get Ready for Armageddon)登上了《紐約時報》(New York Times)暢銷書排行榜的第四位。彼得•D•基爾南(Peter D Kiernan)所著《成爲中國的婊子》(Becoming China’s Bitch)更是一度佔據了亞馬遜(Amazon)榜單的首位。