Κομμάτια από 3 ομιλίες μεταξύ 1947 και 1948:

"...The U.S.A. has no poets, no painters, no architects or composers of world stature. Americanization is a kind of kitschification that gives every cultural value an American stamp, turning a mature language into slang, the waltz into jazz, a work of literature into a crime story..."

"...Cities such as Μοscow and Leningrad contain more eternal manifestations of culture than the entire North American continent. What musicians do the English have to compare with Glinka or Tchaikovsky, and what artists can the Americans present to match Ilya Repin? They talk of human culture. We have it, and remain today its guardians, wardens, and protectors..."

"...We do not wish to deny this culture of nothingness its right to exist. It can even, rightly used, be good, just as it is sometimes a pleasure to do nothing. Should a Soviet soldier be presented with a portable record player and jazz records by an American soldier, he does not smash them against the wall. Instead, he takes them along and thinks he has a great treasure. We don’t want to suggest excessive cultural disaster here. There are times when he wants a vacation from himself, from us, from the whole world. He needs to relax, and certainly does not wish to ponder intellectual matters. Nothing is better suited to take him out of the normal world than the complete nonsense of this hot music, this cacophony of animal howls, wild instruments, and foot-stomping lust. It takes him away from human concerns back to the depths of pre-human apedom, returning him to the time when people did not need to think because there was no past and no future. Its effect is like that of alcohol, which turns normally rational men into shouting, destructive children. That can sometimes be good for serious and intelligent men. And the soldier certainly does not forget his Soviet mission, nor does he lose his character or honor when he occasionally spends an hour relaxing to entertaining music. He is immune to the danger of confusing this rhythmic pig grunting with good music, much less art or culture. It cannot meet his higher standards.

Others, however, are not as immune. That is what those who deny any appeal of Americanism forget.

Certainly there is no danger that our young boys and girls will fall into sexual frenzy while listening to some lout blowing on a saxophone. One can introduce them to the high priests of the American jitterbug with no worries at all. At most they will laugh...

...We sometimes fail to see that there are young people in Europe today - even in the new People's democracies - who not only do not stand within the camp of democracy and anti-imperialism, but even mock or scorn it. Many of us simply cannot understand how there can be a mass meeting at a Polish university protesting the Red Army soldiers who are risking their lives for the freedom and security of Poland.

These young men surely are not consciously supporting the plans of Truman. They are mostly apolitical. Those who think politically and act from conviction demonstrate it through their actions. The others have followed the comfortable path that leads from political thinking to Americanism.

That is the political danger of Americanism. It leads those who fall prey to it away from political thinking, away from responsibility, even to their class, away from decency, even from national decency.

The American lad may use fine phrases to say that the Communist is his political enemy. In reality, however, he fights a man who makes uncomfortable and difficult demands on him, the man who recognizes the fate of the class as his fate, who respects the woman, who wants to be a model, who always acts as if the eyes of the nation are upon him. The American lad feels his “freedom” restricted by such behavior. He wants to keep the hot music spinning on the record player, not be reminded that he must work as well as relax, that he must not only enjoy, but also honor the dignity of his people.

That is neither comfortable nor pleasant. It is pleasant to talk slang and enjoy a loose moral life with those of like mind. Americanism has its delights, and he who is captivated by them not only sticks his head in the sand, he also gets some pleasure. It is nice to be able to dismiss all criticism of a too hearty enjoyment of life with the claim that one is defending human rights against Communism...

...Americanism is a splendid method of depoliticization. The imperialists have used jazz and movies, magazines and smut, gangsterism and free love, and every perverse desire, to keep the American people so distracted that they pay no attention to their own fate. Even in politics, they are no longer influenced by the head, only by what is under the belt.

The imperialists would not be imperialists if they did not want to apply such tested methods to the entire world. Nearly every nation in the world faced or is facing the need to combat Americanism, a generally pleasant retreat to a barbaric lack of culture.

The logical consequences of Americanism will help the world combat it. The fact that 60% of American crimes are committed by children 13 years old and under and that **** increased three-fold between 1946 and 1947 proves that Americanism has reached its limits. It will provoke a counter-movement that can only be political.

Americanism is not merely a moral-cultural form of degeneration, nor can it be combated by nonpolitical means. It has already been defeated when one digs it up by its roots and sees there plainly the words capitalism and imperialism...”