A book that allows people to understand this era.
Editor’s note: This article finishing from “sink’s” , Author: [America] George Parker,Translator: Liu Ran.
Biden is reaching the top, America is sinking
“There have been some changes in life in the United States-some changes that are not yet understood or agreed, but these changes are different from the past, and they are of great importance and far-reaching impact.”
In this way, the masterpiece of American history “Glory and Dreams” stayed in 1972 in a sad tone. This year, the Vietnam War failed to counterattack, the Watergate incident was exposed, the economy stagnated, and the people’s confidence in the government fell to the bottom-what kind of unknown changes has the United States, the world’s largest country, faced in the past 40 or 50 years?
Now, a book called “Sinking Years” responds to this. It was written in the 1970s and spanned over 30 years of history in the United States, covering economic stagflation and the oil crisis, the cocaine plague and the spread of AIDS, the Internet bubble and the Iraq war, the subprime mortgage crisis and the election of Obama, the rise of Silicon Valley and the occupation of Wall Street Such important events caused heated discussions after publication and won the “American National Book Award”, the highest honor in the American book industry.
This book is like a long and flowing scroll with a panoramic view of culture, economy, and politics. It can be called a new American history that continues “Glory and Dreams”: low-level workers, minorities, political elites, and Silicon Valley bigwigs have appeared one after another. Someone climbed up and some fell from the sky. Among them, the most eye-catching appearance was the new president of the United States-Joe Biden.
“Biden will disappoint everyone”
Biden’s first appearance in the book was in 1979. He was 36 years old and was the sixth youngest senator in the history of the United States Senate. In his university speech, he called himself “the material for president”. Not only did he fascinate the girls all over the house, but he also chatted and laughed with the drivers, patiently answering such plain words as “What is the difference between Democrats and Republicans?” problem.
At that time, Biden was young, promising, and humorous. He was a rising political star and was bound to shine in the White House.
Young Biden
However, through the mouth of an aide who has followed Biden for many years, “Sinking Age” presents Biden who is out of public view: contradictory, weak, not collaborating with reality, and having to compromise with reality.
For example, in terms of treatment: Biden always spends time with strangers, especially when they are related to Delaware. If you are a confidant who has worked for him for a long time, with “blood of Biden in blue” on your body, then he will also show strong loyalty to you. But in private, if you just work for him for a few years, he will ignore you, intimidate you, and sometimes humiliate you, has no interest in your progress, and will never remember your name.
For example, in political fundraising: Biden hates fundraising and the trouble and compromise it brings. In Washington, he never dealt with the solidified upper class. Instead, he left his office on Capitol Hill every night, walked across Massachusetts Avenue to Union Station, and then took the train back to Wilmington’s family. But behind the “ordinary man Joe” image of the people, it is his subordinates who are desperately raising money to maintain his political life-if you want to see Biden, you have to donate at least one thousand US dollars; 25,000 US dollars, you can talk to Biden Have a dinner together; for $50,000, you can have a dinner together with Biden at his house.
The book also describes in detail the process of Biden’s two presidential campaigns, and records how a new political star fell. For example, in the 1988 presidential election, Biden still criticized Wall Street crime and poor judicial supervision on TV one minute before he became a plagiarist and a liar-in a debate in Iowa, Biden copied the speech of the British Labor Party politician Neil Kenock, and even copied Kenock’s identity as a descendant of coal miners.
One of the most glorious moments in “Sinking Age” may be what Biden’s personal staff member once said to another staff member: “Biden will disappoint everyone. Here, disappointment is equal opportunity. Of.”
A volume of Ukiyo-e from the sinking age
Biden is just one of many celebrities who appeared in “The Sinking Age”, but no celebrity wants to be included in this book.
The author of “The Sinking Age”, George Parker, selected ten celebrities who have profoundly influenced the United States since the 1970s. They come from different fields such as politics, entertainment, literature, and business, and wrote ten sketch-like biographies for them . DampaKe is not content to describe their static surface, but pointed out how they changed the lives and thinking of a generation of Americans.
For example, the well-known host Oprah is often regarded as an inspirational representative among minorities, encouraging thousands of female audiences.
But in the author George Parker’s pen, she and her audience seem to resonate, but in fact there is a huge gap hidden—”She has become more prominent, and her net worth has risen from 725 million US dollars to 1.5 billion. But her most loyal friends are still her seven million viewers who insist on watching the show day after day. They have things Oprah doesn’t have—children, debts, free time.”
Famous host Oprah
For example, Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, once became the richest man in the United States, and can be described as a self-made representative of the American dream.
But in the book, George Parker deeply analyzes Walm’s profit model: Thousands of jobs are created, but many of them are part-time jobs with no guarantees and very low salaries; commodity prices are extremely low. Low, but dimensionality reduction has suppressed local businesses in towns and villages and monopolized the retail industry-“Over the years, the United States has become more and more like Wal-Mart. It has become cheaper. Prices are cheaper and wages are lower.”
Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart
Another example is Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House of Representatives and a Republican tycoon.
In “The Sinking Age,” George Parker pointed out that Gingrich’s contribution to the United States is not only in policy, but also in shaping every politician afterwards in a new language-“Language is The key to gaining power. His notes include vocabulary lessons: if you use betrayal, weird, bigwig, bureaucracy, deception, corruption, crisis, cynicism, decay, destruction, despicable, imposing, incompetent, liberal, lying , Restricted, outdated, sad, radical, shamefulTo describe your opponent by words such as morbidity, stagnation, status quo, theft, taxes, them, threats, traitors, unionization, and waste of welfare, you can force him to defend himself. “
Republican veteran Newt Gingrich
Americans admire celebrities, and celebrities deeply shape the reality and spirit of Americans.
Oprah represents the cultural dimension, a false myth that convinces Americans that success can be achieved by struggle-“Although the audience is taught by Oprah’s magical way of thinking (vaccine can cause autism) ; Positive thinking can bring wealth, love and success), seeing Oprah always do more and have more, but not everyone can start to enjoy their best life.”
Walton represents the economic aspect. In the past 50 years, the gap between the rich and the poor in the United States has become larger and larger-“The wealth of the six living Waltons will be equivalent to the bottom 30% of the population of the United States. Total wealth.”
Gingrich represents the political level. He intensified the split between the two parties and turned democracy into an attacking performance-“After entering the 21st century, the trenches on both sides were dug deeper and deeper, the battle lines were locked, and the corpses were Pile up like a mountain in the quagmire, last year’s corpses piled on this year’s white bones, creating a war that no one can explain.”
Every glamorous American celebrity has been deeply analyzed in “The Sinking Age” and examined on the scale of the times. Some of them became the accomplices of the times, and some worked hard to resist the erosion of the times, and jointly painted a volume of Ukiyo-e in the sinking era.
“You only care about us once every four years”
Characters under the spotlight such as Biden, Obama and Oprah frequently appear in the book. In addition, there are also celebrities we are familiar with such as rapper Jay-Z and writer Raymond Carver; however, “Sinking The real protagonists of “Era” are ordinary Americans who have never had a chance to speak up.
Another highlight of “Sinking Age” is not the story of a big man, but a story of a poor and backward indigenous people. An Indian woman told a candidate who came to canvass: “You every four years Only care about us once.”
There are tens of thousands of Americans like this: they are only remembered during elections, and they are quickly forgotten after voting. No one can hear their shouts and see their living conditions.. Therefore, he chooses three ordinary people as the protagonists of this book: These three people come from different classes and have no intersection in their life, but they have witnessed and participated in the social changes in the United States in the past 30 to 40 years.
Tami Thomas, a black female worker, was born in the city of Youngstown, which is rich in steel. She has worked in a factory for decades and wanted to escape the slums all her life. She represents ethnic minorities and the ranks of workers.
Dean Price, a farmer entrepreneur, was born in the conservative South. His ancestors were farmers. He could not make money from farming, but he always believed in the American dream of starting from scratch. He represented the bottom white man, the so-called ” Red neck”.
Jeff Connaughton, a political and business elite, has followed Biden’s right-hand man for decades, traveling between Wall Street and Washington, with the lofty ideal of changing the United States in his heart-he represents a member of the high-level system.
The author George Parker wrote straightforwardly in the prologue of the book that if an American was born around 1960, then his adult life is spent in disintegration and vertigo, and these three protagonists are among them. representative.
The book read: “You witnessed the social structure that existed before you were born collapsed like a pillar of salt in a vast landscape—farms in the Piedmont region of North and South Carolina, factories in the Mahoning Valley, Residential areas in Florida, colleges and universities in California. There are also some things that have changed beyond recognition. They are more hidden, but they are also vital in maintaining the order of daily life-the operation and methods of the Washington Caucus conference room, the New York transaction The taboos of the market, the rules of conduct and ethics in various fields. When the norms that enabled the effective operation of the old system began to disintegrate, leaders gave up their duties and the Roosevelt Republic, which had ruled for nearly half a century, ceased to exist.”
The economist Philip Longman once pointed out that Americans born after 1950 are the first generation of Americans in history who have experienced a lifelong downward mobility trend. Since the 1960s, the proportion of non-working American men between the ages of 25 and 45 has tripled. “Sinking Era” is written for this only generation of Americans whose lives have sunk: they were born in the golden age of post-war economic growth, and after half a lifetime, they ushered in the collapse of the traditional social structure.
This is why the historian Xu Zhuoyun mentioned the “Sinking Age” in both “Xu Zhuoyun Says America” and “Xu Zhuoyun Says History”. He believes that this book reveals that the United States is in the process of disintegration. “Today’s America is disintegrating. Old-familiar institutions, such as local small banks, labor unions, factory buildings, churches, and landThe various ‘clubs’ engaged in social services of the main body of activities are gradually disappearing. “
Indeed, through decades of intertwined stories of celebrities and small people, “Sinking Age” has written the anger and sorrow of this generation, and it also shows the disintegration and decline of American society, just like the professor of the Department of Political Science at East China Normal University Liu Qing commented on this book: “This is a bleak profile of an era: frustrated efforts, betrayed trust, dying vitality, and fading hope. The writing on the back of the paper, the life-like characters, presents more than 30 Americans. The vicissitudes of the year have also written a thought-provoking prequel to the tragedy of the current social tearing.”
Indeed, the current chaos in the United States-split between the two parties, racial conflicts, and out of control of the epidemic-is not a separate static event. Looking back at the social changes since the 1970s through this book, we can see The historical origin of current real problems.
Finally, Joe Biden, the rising political star, finally succeeded in reaching the top after more than forty years of struggle, shining in the White House, but his country has been sinking—this is the new The cruel reality the President will face in the next four years.
Book title: Sinking Era
Original title: The Unwinding: An Inner History of the New America
Author: [美] George Parker
Translator: Liu Ran
Author introduction
George Parker, American writer and journalist.
Born in 1960, graduated from Yale University. Since 2003, he has been a full-time author of “The New Yorker” for fifteen consecutive years, and has won two overseas journalists club awards. Now he is a full-time author of The Atlantic Monthly.
As a long-term observer and first-line writer, George Parker is well versed in the historical changes, economic development and social structure of the United States. He has penetrated into the world of life from Washington to the embroidery factory, and is regarded as one of the writers who know contemporary America best. His works “Assassin’s Gate” and “Our People” have been nominated for Pulitzer Prize successively, and “The Sinking Age” won the National Book Award in 2013 for “Uncovering the Broken Cracks in America”.
In 2019, George Parker won the Hitchens Award, which recognizes writers who “freely express and pursue truth regardless of personal or professional consequences”.
Liu Ran, Bachelor and Master of Sociology from The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Doctor of Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. He once worked for a technology company in Silicon Valley. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Violence: A Micro-Sociological Theory” and other books.