Americanism is an intensification of European civilisation, not a new type
Evidence
In the case of Americanism, understood not only as a form of cafe life but as an ideology of the kind represented by Rotary Clubs, we are not dealing with a new type of civilisation. … What we are dealing with is an organic extension and an intensification of European civilisation, which has simply acquired a new coating in the American climate. … Pirandello’s observation on the opposition that Americanism encounters in Paris (but in Le Creusot?) and on the immediate welcome that it supposedly had in Berlin proves, in any case, that the difference between it and “Europeanism” is not one of nature but of degree. … In Berlin the middle classes had already been ruined by the war and by inflation, and Berlin industry has very different characteristics overall from that of Paris. … The French middle classes did not undergo either occasional crises, like the inflation in Germany, nor did they suffer the organic crisis of 1929 with the same intensity as Germany. … For this reason it is true that in Paris Americanism can appear like a form of make-up, a superficial foreign fashion. — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1162
Categorization
- XREF: The ‘not nature but degree’ distinction parallels how later exclusionary ideologies code surface difference; the reception-variance-by-class-ruin logic is directly reusable for why new ideologies land unevenly. — connects to: Americans believed their nation was exempt from European history’s burdens — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 474; Americans mistakenly believe they are different from other nations. — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 121
- corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks, 1162
Broader Connections
- Americans believed their nation was exempt from European history’s burdens
#contradicts(0.85) — James W. Carey, Communication as Culture- Essays on…, 474 - Americans mistakenly believe they are different from other nations.
#corroborates(0.85) — Neil Sheehan, A Bright Shining Lie, 121