About the video that I shared in my previous journal: [link] It is Charlie Chaplin speech delivered at the end of The Great Dictator movie where he criticizes and parodies dictatorship. The video is not the extract from the original movie but an edit of it with clips of our actuality.
I'm sharing the written speech for the people who can not access the video for whatever idiotic copyright law. Because I think this speech is seriously accurate and significant at this point in time, right past 12-21-2012. Actually, it is the most significant thing I've ever heard and this speech finds its place in my mind and my heart where Martin Luther King Jr. speeches find their place in beauty, humanity and hope. I read for the first time Beyond Vietnam and I've Been To The Mountaintop at age 23, I'm surprised that nobody made me read them earlier. They are so important, so crucial. I was even more surprised to learn that Americans did not have the opportunity to grow up with Charlie Chaplin as I did, because The Great Dictator was banned in movie theaters in the 1950's when it first came out. That tells a lot. These speeches are incredibly important. Share them. With your friends, with your kids, with everyone; be warned and be inspired. And stop watching TV.
Written and delivered by Sir Charles Chaplin:
"I'm sorry but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone if possible; Jew, Gentile, black men, white. We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by each others' happiness, not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men's souls; has barricaded the world with hate; has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge as made us cynical; our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness, we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost.
The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in man; cries out for universal brotherhood; for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world, millions of despairing men, women, and little children, victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people. To those who can hear me, I say "Do not despair." The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed, the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you; who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel! Who drill you, diet you, treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder! Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men---machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have a love of humanity in your hearts! You don't hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter of St. Luke, it's written "the kingdom of God is within man", not one man nor a group of men, but in all men! In you! You, the people, have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy, let us use that power.
Let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give youth a future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill their promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To do away with greed, with hate and intolerance! Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness. Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
Hanna, can you hear me? Wherever you are, look up Hanna! The clouds are lifting! The sun is breaking through! We are coming out of the darkness into the light! We are coming into a new world; a kind new world, where men will rise above their hate, their greed, and brutality. Look up, Hanna! The soul of man has been given wings and at last he is beginning to fly. He is flying into the rainbow. Into the light of hope! Into the future! The glorious future! That belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hanna! Look up!"
If you missed it in my first journal, there is the edit by Melodysheep which was taken down (for idiotic copyright laws as well since all these clips are most probably from public archives). It does not contain the full speech but retains the most important parts made into a song. It's different but I love it just as much as the original, for different reasons. The energy, maybe.
I'm not sure whether it's a typo or just a misunderstanding, but The Great Dictator came out in 1940, not 1950. Lots of Americans know the movie well and have grown up with it for generations. I'm not finding any evidence so far that it was ever banned in the US, though it was to be banned in England due to England having a policy of appeasement during the time it was made. But by the time it was actually released, Britain was at war with Hitler, so they used it to influence anti-Hitler sentiments (a lot of British didn't think they should be fighting Hitler at all). Despite America not being in the war at the time, it was Chaplin's biggest box office hit ever in 1940 and was up for 5 Academy Awards that year (though it sadly didn't win any). I've even read that the president of the time, FDR, encouraged him to finish the film. Also, IMDB says that he was asked to perform the speech on national radio, though it doesn't say when and I haven't been able to verify it. Where I know it was banned was all the countries occupied by Germany (so pretty much all of Europe except Britain), Spain (until Franco's death), and shown only with the anti-Mussolini parts edited out in Italy for some years. I've never heard of it being banned in the 1950's, and considering most theaters wouldn't play a movie from ten years before and America has never wanted to downplay the importance of the lives sacrificed in Europe in WWII, I'm not sure why it would need to be. It just wasn't in any American politician's best interest to ban that movie after we entered the war, and I know we didn't do it before we did. Which isn't to say it definitely never happened anywhere in the US (I'm definitely sure it didn't happen nationally- that's not how things work in the US), just that I'm finding no evidence that it happened nor any reason for it to have happened.
The message is beautiful. I saw this a couple of years ago, and I was surprised when you shared it. I wish this could really touch more people, not superficially, but deep in their souls and mind, but... let us be honest, most people are dead inside. They do not care to understand this sentiment of empathy nor put thought on something other than their immediate needs. So insidious is the plan of those whose greed has permeated the world, that they've managed to make most of humanity what they've always wanted: mindless drones with only a couple of objectives. Sex, money, consume, reproduce, enjoy... fill the status quo requirements. Still, I hope that by sharing this, we can make people think for a moment about it.
The first more or less political related speech that has ever made me feel... So many things, so strongly. Digging into the truths of our very nature and base. Absolutely beautiful. Watched it three times and favorites that. That's something I won't forget soon, and will be sharing with people.
`anmari has been spreading her infectious positivity throughout our community for over 6 years. Throughout this time Ana has been at the core of all things devious, passionately developing an eclectic gallery, helping organise devmeets, participating in chat events and also recently completed dedicating her time as a Community Volunteer. We are absolutely delighted to bestow the Deviousness Award for May 2013 to `anmari, congratulations! Read More
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Still, I hope that by sharing this, we can make people think for a moment about it.