Fantastic stuff, I literally just joined ATS and I walked straight into this.

Never heard this speech before and it is indeed a very powerful one.

Many, many thanks !

What a mind blowing speech!

It just fits straight in with everything in the world today...genius

Id forgotten about this until this thread! My grandfather was a huge Chaplin and Keaton fan... yeah, they even had a sense of humor on the rez.. anyway.. I recall seeing this when I was a child and it scared me. He seemed always such a funny and gentle little man. I guess now that Im older I can see he was pretty deep water! I dont know if that was the intention, but I recall it being frightening and I dont recall why! I watch it now here inthis thread after all of these years and again, its frightening. Not in a scream and run way, but in a way that it makes me feel a weird way I cant explain now that Im older.


Ive read the thread here and I have to disagree with a few posters.. whats new eh? I do not believe that people are naturally good or that they can ever achieve world peace for any form of utopia. I think that some evil person planted this false seed in our heads to make us fight against our natures and look toward the impossible rather than formulating a viable plan to live in harmony with the world.. if not each other

that Im old I think I finally "got" it.. what my elders were trying to teach all of us back in the day. Its the reason that even when Im bashed or provoked on here I never ( maybe rarely) get into a word war. I do love our differences. I dont want utopia.. I love and want people in their natural state. Being in our natural state we can combat the things we need to combat and win. As we are now.. so indoctrinated with the demands for "peace".. we arent fighting to resurrect our nation from the dead. It kind of goes along with what Chaplin is saying here.. what we have in our futures.. except our futures are now our present and we must shed this apathy and fear. We NEED to get in touch with out natural selves... and win a battle for possession of our freedoms if now our souls.

yeah I know.. ramble ramble rant rant.. its another perk of age.

Brilliant speech from a man know to be silent! thx for sharing

Is this not from his acclaimed film The Graet Dictator (1940)?
Ironically, it was Adolf Hitler's favourite film. Although you might think it poignant, I keep thinking of Chaplin's character's name - Adenoid Hynkel. Kind of waters down the message somewhat.

Charrliiiiieeeee Chaaapppllliiiinnn...
This makes me adore him even more...
Maybe he could have led the world into a better state... Three Cheers for Charlie!

"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 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 [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 fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil 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."

Chills watching that.

Good one.

This video has been posted in at least two other ATS threads. It's amazing. Neither of them received 200 flags. HAHA. Good video though.

Just came across this, what a great speech.