Charlie Chaplin's Thoughts on War and Peace

In the movie (actually a "talkie")  The Great
Dictator, Charlie Chaplin (wrote, starred,
and directed) created a comedy/tragedy about
the rise of facism during the second world war.

The antagonist is "Adenoid Hynkel" (hitler),
and there is a simple barber who is a dead
ringer for the Nazi dictator.

Near the end of the story, Chaplin (who has
now been mistaken for Hynkell) along with
Major Shultz (a general that was ordered killed
by Hynkell when he dared to oppose him).

Anyway, these two are thrust into the middle
of the triumphal speech after Termania has
successfully invaded their neighboring
country, Osteralich.

The minister of propaganda, Joseph Garbage
gets up to give his introductory speech
for Hynkel:

"Goebels":  Corona vedea invectus.
            Victory shall come to the
worthy. Today, Democracy, Liberty and
Equality are words to fool the people.
No nation can progress with such ideas
-- therefore, we thankfully abolish
them.  In the future, each man will
serve the interests of the state with
absolute obedience.  Let him who refuses,
be ware:   The rights of citizenship
will be taken away from all Jews and
non Aryians.  THey are inferior and
therefore enemies of the state.  It
is the duty of all true Aryians to
hate and despise them.

Henceforth, this nation is annexed to
the Termanian Empire.  And the people
of this nation will obey the laws
bestowed upon us by our great leader:
The Dictator of Termania, the Conqueror
of Ostrelich, the future Emperor of
the World.

(Major Shultz, speaks quietly to
Charlie Chaplin -- whom everyone
thinks is really Hynkel):  You must speak.

Chaplin:  I can't.

Shultz:  You must.  Its our only hope.

(Chaplin gets up, and slowly walks up
the stairs to the podium.  Goebels
salutes, Chaplin merely bows, he approaches
the microphone, and after several seconds
speaks):


I'm sorry.

But, I don't want to be an emperor --
that's not my business.  I don't want
to conquer anyone; I should like to
help everyone if possible:

Jew, Gentile
Black man, White
-- we all want to help one another:

Human beings are like that.

We all want to live by each other's
happiness not by each other's misery.

We don't want to hate and despise
one another.  There's room enough for
everyone.  The good Earth is rich
and can provide for everyone.

The way of life could 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 our selves in.

Machinery that gives abundance,
has left us in want.

Our knowledge has made us cynical,
our cleverness
    -- hard and un-kind.

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 men.  Cries out
for the universal brotherhood, for the
unity of us all.

Even now, my voice is reaching
millions throughout the world.
Millions despairing:  Men, Women,
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 merely the passing of
Greed.  The bitterness of men who
fear the way of human progress.
The hate of men who will pass and
dictators who will die.

And the power that they took from
the people, will return to the
people  And so long as men die,
liberty will never perish.

Soldiers!

Don't give your selves to brutes.

Men who despise you,
enslave you,
regiment your lives,
who tell you what to do,
what to think,
what to feel.

Treat you like cattle.

Use you as cannon fodder.

Don't give your selves to these
un-natural men -- machine men,
with machine minds
and machine hearts.

You are not machines,
you are not cattle.
You are men.

You have the love humanity in your
hearts.  You don't hate
   -- only the un-loved hate;
   the un-loved and the un-natural.

Soldiers!

Don't fight for slavery
   -- fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of
Saint Luke, it is written that
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
to create machines, 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 the old a security.

By the promise of these things,
brutes have risen to power --
but they lie.

They do not fulfill their promises
    -- 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 unite!

(as he finishes, there is
applause by the masses, and
music. The camera shows his
girl friend laying on the
ground, where the storm
troopers have left her, she
stays there, but then lifts
up her head from the ground to
hear...

(again Chaplin speaking; softly):

Hannah, can you hear me?
Hannah?
Where ever you are,
look up Hannah.

The clouds are lifting,
the sun is breaking through.

We are coming out of the darkness
and into the light.  We are coming
into a new world.  A kindlier world,
where men rise above their hate,
their greed, and brutality.

Look up Hannah!

The soul of man has been given
wings and at last he is beginning
to fly.

To fly into the rainbow.

Into the light,
into the future,
into the glorious future.

The future
that belongs to you,
that belongs to me,
that belongs to us all.

Look up Hannah,
Look up.


-- Charles "Charlie" Chaplin.


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