The Great Dictator

The Great Dictator

Via - Jake Day
By Charlie Chaplin
September 24, 2014

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 man,
white.

We all want to help one another.

Human beings are like that.

We want to live by each other's 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 has 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
men, 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, enslave you,
who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think or 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 the 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 17th Chapter of St. Luke it is 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 the 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!

- Charlie Chaplin, 'The Great Dictator', 1940



Sir Charles Spencer "Charlie" Chaplin, KBE (16 April 1889 – 25
December 1977) was an English actor, comedian, and filmmaker
who rose to fame in the silent era.

Chaplin became a worldwide icon through his screen persona "the
Tramp" and is considered one of the most important figures in the
history of the film industry.