Charlie Chaplin had it nailed 73 years ago.

[HarrogateTobias]

Only just found this. You've all probably seen it.

[video=youtube;WibmcsEGLKo]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WibmcsEGLKo&list=FLUqL Br95wG7peP8W6qXK8uA&index=24[/video]

Edit. Spelling mistake in title, not sure how to change if a kind mod would


The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin's character): Hope... 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 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. In this world there is room for everyone and the 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 airplane 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 [now] 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 as cattle, 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. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers - don't fight for slavery, fight for liberty.

In the seventeenth chapter of Saint 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, the people.

You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let's 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 you the future and old age and 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, 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!

Look up! Look up! 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 and brutality.

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, that glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. Look up. Look up.

 

[Niels]

That's beautiful. I for one had never seen it before.

 

[HarrogateTobias]

That's beautiful. I for one had never seen it before.

It sure is. Yet history repeats itself over and over and over...

My favourite part is "we think too much and feel too little"

 

[Biker]

Oscar worthy performance there if there ever was one. I'd seen this before but I needed reminding of that message of hope for humanity. Thanks for posting it

(to edit the title go to edit post then hit the "Go advanced")

 

[ozzy1977]

nice one, what is it from?

 

[Reverend Graham]

It's a bit dusty in here (sniff) if only it could be like that

Rev G

 

[HarrogateTobias]

Oscar worthy performance there if there ever was one. I'd seen this before but I needed reminding of that message of hope for humanity. Thanks for posting it

(to edit the title go to edit post then hit the "Go advanced")

Cheers mate, for some reason i woke up this morning thinking about those buckets full of tools at that car boot sale....weird

 

[abominable_scouse_monster]

Damn that, that has just blown me away. I wish they showed "The Great Dictator" at the school I attended, but it was removed from the viewing room's library due to "Sensitive historical imagery".

 

[blacktimberwolf]

Mankind has to make a concientious effort to be human................it comes naturally to dogs.

 

[santaman2000]

Mankind has to make a concientious effort to be human................it comes naturally to dogs.

The more I learn about people; the more I like my dog.

 

[Tristar777]

Words mean nothing unless they provoke you to action.

 

[British Red]

Indeed - without wanting to be overly cynical, its worth remembering that Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE received an eye wateringly huge salary and was a notorious rich, disturbed womaniser. He may have enjoyed espousing socialist principles - but he certainly did not practice what he preached.

 

[santaman2000]

Indeed - without wanting to be overly cynical, its worth remembering that Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE received an eye wateringly huge salary and was a notorious rich, disturbed womaniser. He may have enjoyed espousing socialist principles - but he certainly did not practice what he preached.

All true BR. I do think though that it (the video) gives us an example. He wasn't perfect, and neither or we. But pausing occassionally to reflect on ways to better ourselves is worthwhile. We'll never reach out highest ambitions but at least we do reccognize them.

And I'm definitely not a socialist!

 

[British Red]

Sure, but I would listen to a shout for equality that comes from someone who has voluntarily given up all he has beyond the world average income - just over $6,000 a year - before deductions to pay for healthcare, clean water, roads etc.

People who have more than that are part of the problem - not part of the solution - when it comes to "equality for all". Anyone can choose to live "fairly" and not take more than the global average - indeed they can improve the lot of another person with less by sharing with them.

To take more than your share and then complain how unfair the world is smacks of hypocrisy to me.

Of course most of us don't want to live like that.

 

[sandbender]

"...Of course most of us don't want to live like that..."

There was a time when I probably could and did live on less than that, maybe I will again in a decade or two.

There is a Russian saying "A man cannot possess more than his heart can love". Which works for me and as I have more to love right now, I can possess a little more.

 

[santaman2000]

Agreed BR. Not sure about your figures though; is that a world average? $6,000 a year is only a few hundred over my mortgage and I live in a SMALL house I bought over 20 years ago (and thus at correspondingly lower price)

Also agree on your main point about giving to the poor. Much better than having the government extort it (taxes) for "redistribution."

 

[British Red]

Figures are here Santaman - worth a read

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17512040

Worth considering of course that in order to maintain UK public spending (NHS, pensions, police etc,), each person in the UK needs to contribute (on average) over £9,000 per annum. So we would probably have to scrap things like that.

That is what I mean about "we don't want to live like that"

 

[santaman2000]

Ah. Thanks BR. But a quick scan tells me it's the "mean" salary. That's good to know but only part of the overall story. If I make a certain salary in Country A and somebody else makes only half that in country B for the same work it would seem on the surface to be unfair (and it most often is) But it doesn't take into account the differing costs of living between the two countries does it?

A more accurate measurement would be actual standard of living betwen the two countries, but that's a complex issue to quantify. Particularly if you have to take cultural expectations into account.

 

[British Red]

Read on Santaman - its based on PPP (which stands for purchasing power parity) - it allows for varying cost bases and equates the income back to providing equal standards of living

 

[HarrogateTobias]

Indeed - without wanting to be overly cynical, its worth remembering that Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin KBE received an eye wateringly huge salary and was a notorious rich, disturbed womaniser. He may have enjoyed espousing socialist principles - but he certainly did not practice what he preached.

I wasnt aware of that Red cheers.