Preface to Culture of Narcissism

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Preface to Culture of Narcissism Hardly more than a quarter-century after Henry Luce1 proclaimed “the American century”, American confidence fallen to low ebb2. Those who recently dreamed of

Course: Translation studies Date: Nov.5

Name: Xiaoying

Hu

world power now despair of governing 仅在亨利鲁西声称美国时代到来之后 的 25 年，美国人的自信就已跌落谷底。 the city of New York. Defeat in Vietnam, 那些刚梦想统治世界的人现在对控制 economic stagnation, and the impending 纽约都绝望了。 越战失败，经济萧条，自然资源面临枯 exhaustion of natural resources have 竭。这些悲观的情绪笼罩着当局高层， produced a mood of pessimism in higher 也扩散到社会的各个阶层，人们对领导 者也失去信心 circles, which spreads through the rest of 同样的自信危机也潜伏在其他资本主 society as people lose faith in their 义国家。 在欧洲，共产党力量不断壮大，法西斯 leaders. The same crisis of confidence 运动死灰复燃，恐怖主义再掀浪潮，这 grips other capitalist countries as well. In 些都用不同的方式动摇已经建立的政 权和传统。 Europe, the growing strength of 即使在有着坚固的中产阶级依靠堡垒 communist parties, the revival of fascist 的加拿大，现如今面临魁北克的分裂运 动，将会直接威胁到国家的存亡。 movements, and a wave of terrorism all 现存在整个国际范围的不安显示出这 testify, in different ways, to the weakness 一切不能归咎于美国的失落情绪。中产 阶级社会似乎在所有地方都用尽了自 of established regimes and to the 己的建设性意见。他们已失去了战胜压 exhaustion of established tradition3. Even 倒性困难的能力和意志。资本主义的政 治危机折射出西方文化的普遍危机，这 Canada, long a bastion of stolid bourgeois 种普遍危机揭示了自身对于现代历史 dependability, now faces in the separatist 过程的理解或者屈从于理性方向的整 体绝望。 movement in Quebec a threat to its very 作为先进的中产阶级的政治理论，自由 主义很早以前就不能解释发生在福利 existence as a nation. 国家和跨国公司里的事件了。但仍无理 The international dimensions of the 论可以取代。就像政治性破产，自由主 current malaise indicate that it can not be 义是智力上的破产。 他们推崇的科学，曾经为他们驱赶时代

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attributed to an American failure of nerve. 的黑暗，现如今已无法很好的解释他们 所面临的困境。 Bourgeois society seems everywhere to 新古典主义经济理论无法解释失业和 have used up its store of constructive 通货膨胀的同时存在原因。 社会学也不再尝试为现代社会的一般 ideas. It has lost both the capacity and the 理论列提纲。 will to confront the difficulties that 心理学也不再挑战弗洛伊德的理论，转 而研

究生活琐事。 threaten to overwhelm it. 自然科学，曾不断夸耀自己，如今也匆 The political crisis of capitalism reflects a 匆的向世人宣布已无法为社会问题提 供灵丹妙药。 general crisis of western culture, which reveals itself in a pervasive despair of understanding the course of modern history or of subjecting it to rational direction. Liberalism, the political theory of the ascendant bourgeois, long ago lost the capacity to explain the events in the world of welfare state and the

multinational corporation; nothing has taken its place. Politically bankrupt, liberalism is intellectually bankrupt as well. The sciences it has fostered, once

confident of their ability to dispel the darkness of the ages, no longer provide satisfactory explanations of the

phenomena they profess to elucide. Neoclassical economic theory can not explain the coexistence of unemployment and inflation; sociology retreats from the attempts to outline a general theory of modern society; academic psychology retreats from the challenge of Fraud into

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the measurement of trivia. The natural sciences, having made exaggerated

claims for themselves, now hasten to announce that science offers no miracle cures for social problems.