Is America going to decline like other great nations have before? The author thinks not, arguing that the type of society being created in America is quite unlike any that has gone before it. Read what he has to say and see whether you agree.
美國是否會如同歷史上其他強國一樣走向衰亡？作者持否定觀點，認為美國創建的社會模式不同于任何已出現的社會模式。讀一讀他的觀點，看看你是否同意。

America as a Collage

Ryzsard Kapuscinski

1 The mere fact that America still attracts millions of people is evidence that it is not in decline. People aren't attracted to a place of decline. Signs of decline are sure to be found in a place as complex as America: debt, crime, the homeless, drugs, dropouts. But the main characteristic of America, the first and most enduring impression, is dynamism, energy, aggressiveness, forward movement.

美國大拼盤

里扎德·卡普欽斯基

僅看美國依然吸引著千百萬人這一事實就足以證明美國并未衰落。人們不會被吸引到一個衰落的地方。在美國這樣一個錯綜復雜的國家，當然能看到衰落的跡象，如債務、犯罪活動、無家可歸者、吸毒、逃避現實社會的人。但美國的主要特征，亦即它給人的最初的、最持久的印象，卻是充滿活力、生機勃勃、不斷進取、積極向上。
　
2 It is so hard to think of this nation in decline when you know that there are vast regions of the planet which are absolutely paralyzed, incapable of any improvement at all.
如果你知道世界上有廣大地區完全處于癱瘓狀態，無法取得任何進步時，那就難以想象這個國家在衰落。


3 It is difficult for me to agree with Paul Kennedy's thesis in The Rise and Fall of Great Powers that America must inevitably follow historical precedent. That's the way history used to be -- all powerful nations declined and gave way to other empires. But maybe there is another way to look at what is happening. I have a sense that what is going on here concerns much more than the fate of a nation.
我很難同意保羅·肯尼迪在《列強之興衰》中的論點， 即美國將不可避免地重蹈歷史覆轍。歷史一直如此循環—強國衰落，為新興的帝國所取代。但或許我們能從另外一個角度看待正在發生的一切。我有種感覺，這個國家正在發生的一切不僅僅關乎一國之命運。


4 It may be that the Euro-centered American nation is declining as it gives way to a new Pacific civilization that will include, but not be limited to, America. Historically speaking, America may not decline, but instead fuse with the Pacific culture to create a kind of vast Pacific collage, a mix of Hispanic and Asian cultures linked through the most modern communication technologies.
以歐洲為中心的美國或許是在衰落，正由一個新的太平洋文化所取代，這一文化包括但并不局限于美國。從歷史的角度來看，美國或許不會衰落，相反，它將與太平洋文化相融合，創建一種廣泛的太平洋拼盤文化，一種依靠最現代的通訊技術連接的拉丁文化與亞洲文化的混合文化。

5 Traditional history has been a history of nations. But here, for the first time since the Roman Empire, there is the possibility of creating the history of a civilization. Now is the first chance on a new basis with new technologies to create a civilization of unprecedented openness and pluralism. A civilization of the polycentric mind. A civilization that leaves behind forever the ethnocentric, tribal mentality. The mentality of destruction. 傳統意義上的歷史一直是各個國家的歷史。但在美國，自羅馬帝國以來，首次出現了創建一個文化的歷史的可能。現在第一次有了這樣一個機遇，在新的基礎上用新技術創建一個有著前所未有的開放性的多元文化。一個有著多種精神中心的文化。一個永遠拋棄種族中心主義心態、部落心態的文化。那是一種破壞性的心態。

6 Los Angeles is a premonition of this new civilization.
洛杉磯就是這一新興文化的先兆。

7 Linked more to the Third World and Asia than to the Europe of America's racial and cultural roots, Los Angeles and southern California will enter the twenty-first century as a multiracial and multicultural society. This is absolutely new. There is no previous example of a civilization that is being simultaneously created by so many races, nationalities, and cultures. This new type of cultural pluralism is completely unknown in the history of mankind.
洛杉磯以及南加州與第三世界和亞洲的聯系要比與美國的民族、文化之根歐洲的聯系密切，因此將以一個多民族、多元文化的社會進入21世紀。這是一種全新的現象。一個文化由如此之多的種族、民族和文化同時創建，這樣的先例從未有過。這種新型的文化多元化在人類歷史上聞所未聞。


8 America is becoming more plural every day because of the unbelievable facility of the new Third World immigrants to put a piece of their original culture inside of American culture. The notion of a "dominant" American culture is changing every moment. It is incredible coming to America to find you are somewhere else -- in Seoul, in Taipei, in Mexico City. You can travel inside this Korean culture right on the streets of Los Angeles. Inhabitants of this vast city become internal tourists in the place of their own residence.
由于來自第三世界的新移民所具有的將本族文化融入美國文化的令人難以置信的本領，美國正變得越來越多元化。美國有“主導”文化的概念時刻在改變。來到美國，你會不可思議地發現自己身在別地—來到了漢城，臺北，墨西哥城。你在洛杉磯街頭行走， 就可以感受到韓國的文化氛圍。這個大城市的居民成了自己居住地的游客。


9 There are large communities of Laotians, Vietnamese, Cambodians, Mexicans, Salvadorans, Guatemalans, Iranians, Japanese, Koreans, Armenians, Chinese. We find here Little Taipei, Little Saigon, Little Tokyo, Koreatown, Little Central America, the Iranian neighborhood in Westwood, the Armenian community in Hollywood, and the vast Mexican-American areas of East Los Angeles. Eighty-one languages, few of them European, are spoken in the elementary school system of the city of Los Angeles.
這里有規模很大的社區，住著老撾人、越南人、柬埔寨人、墨西哥人、薩爾瓦多人、危地馬拉人、伊朗人、日本人、韓國人、亞美尼亞人以及中國人。這里我們能找到小臺北、小西貢、小東京、韓國城、小中美洲、威斯特伍德的伊朗人社區、好萊塢的亞美尼亞人社區，以及東洛杉磯墨西哥裔美國人范圍很大的居住區。洛杉磯市的小學系統共使用81種語言，其中鮮有歐洲語言。


10 This transformation of American culture anticipates the general trend in the composition of mankind. Ninety percent of the immigrants to this city are from the Third World. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, 90 percent of the world's population will be dark-skinned; the white race will be no more than 11 percent of all human beings living on our planet.
美國文化的這一變化預示著人類構成的普遍趨勢。洛杉磯市90%的移民來自第三世界。到21世紀初，90%的世界人口將是深膚色的；所有生活在地球上的人中，白人不會超過11%。

11 Something that can only be seen in America: In the landscaped, ultraclean high-technology parks of northern Orange County there is a personal computer company that seven years ago did not exist. There were only strawberry fields where the plant is. Now, there is a $500 million company with factories in Hong Kong and Taiwan as well.
只有在美國才會出現這種情況：在北部桔縣環境作過美化的、超凈的高科技園區，有家7年前尚不存在的個人電腦公司。公司的所在地那時還是草莓地。如今，這是一家有著5億美元資產、在香港和臺灣都設有工廠的大公司。