It’s ironic indeed that an actor from the era of silent films should go on to make the best speech ever, the best audio clip that moves us even today, 75 years after it was made. In these days of terror, grief and destruction, even as the world comes to terms with yet another attack upon Paris, one speech made by Charlie Chaplin seems to reach out to us through the ages to today, where his words still resonate with the self-obsessed people that we are today.
This speech comes from the movie, The Great Dictator, a parody where Charlie Chaplin plays none other than Adolf Hitler. Chaplin bore some resemblance to the dictator, and used that to his advantage in his movies. In this parody movie, Chaplin plays a Jewish barber in Tomania (Germany), who looks exactly like their dictator Adenoid Hynkel (Adolf Hitler).
When the barber escapes from the concentration camp with another man using stolen uniforms, their only choice to escape, across the border, is by pretending that the barber is Hynkel. They end up at a parade across the border, where the barber has to address the crowd gathered there, as Hynkel. In that moment of fear, he is inspired and summons up this speech intended for the humanity.
Today, Paris is reeling under the terror attacks by ISIS, in return, France has bombed ISIS-occupied locations, hundreds of thousands of refugees in the Middle East are homeless, and we have hate spreading in India between communities. In the midst of all this, what Chaplin said back in 1940, in the movie, may strike a chord with all of us, on what humanity has lost, on what is the real cost of our progress. Ironically, this speech too was made during a war – World War II.
“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….”
Check out the video of the speech here.
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