Charlie Chaplin Speaks - 70 Years And Things Still Haven't Changed

"banned in the USA"

Yes, the American leaders were working a long-game of putting the masses in their pockets at the time. They wouldn't want people to get ideas about democracy... why... that would lead to Constitutional Law or something equally fair.

Chaplin had balls of steel.

We're so used to satires/parodies of global events and well-known people at this point. From SNL to YouTube to The Onion to anonymous message board posts on the Internet, we've been saturated with it. Putting this film into the context from when it was made--- in the middle of WWII , while Hitler was still alive, ruling Germany and growing in power by the minute--- you've really got to hand it to Chaplin for doing what he did. Remember, this was in 1940, and there was a difference "acceptable" set of social and political guidelines back then. What he did was really quite groundbreaking.

Chaplin is someone I admire and respect. He wasn't perfect--- just read his autobiography--- but he made excellent points that transcend many social and political changes that have happened in the 70 years since this performance or in the 38 years since his death.

i absolutely ABSOLUTELY LOVE this speech

"(The first meeting with Hitler) was quite exciting. Suddenly there I was, little Traudl Humps, sitting opposite the Fuhrer. And the Fuhrer himself, whatever you thought about him, was a great man in those days. It was such an extraordinary situation, so incredible, such an adventure."

This above is a quote from: Blind Spot, a great documentary/interview about Traudl Junge, she worked as a secretary for Adolph Hitler. She remembers her experiences with him and how she was totally unaware of the monster she was working for, the holocaust and the horror of his dictatorship. She was truly in a blind spot. Please watch the whole movie before judging this woman.

This film makes me think of how it is possible for a person, a group of people and the majority of an entire nation to be living in oblivion.
Charlie Chaplin surely took a stand and tried to raise awareness, inspire and move people towards goodness and against this evil.

"Life is a beautiful, magnificent thing, even to a jellyfish. ... The trouble is you won't fight. You've given up. But there's something just as inevitable as death. And that's life. Think of the power of the universe — turning the Earth, growing the trees. That's the same power within you — if you'll only have the courage and the will to use it."
By Charlie Chaplin

It seems Hitler watched this movie twice. I am wondering if he was laughing at him self, getting amused by Chaplin's performance or crying for him self.

Thank you for this post Jubal.

Oh shit! That gave me chills. They need to play this on TV every day. Talk about a call to arms! Man, that was amazing. I think it's important that we all never forget our motivation in this country.

I love this speech and always have. Unfortunately some things never change. The world he has describing is the same as seventy years ago and the world he envisioned is as much a dream now as it was then. It is a shame America doesn't stand for what it did back then. We have lost our soul or sold it which would be even worse.

Damn, I guess I'll have to watch the whole movie to gain even more insight though this one speech eloquently says what I would want to say. It is something that cannot be improved, only followed by our own actions. The hate that shows up in our world is contagious, so is the love, the compassion that we feel in our hearts when we "listen to the better angels of our conscience."

Much of Charlie Chaplin work is timeless. Much can be learned but it appears what was true then still true now. People understand the problems but do not change. It is not enough to know good from bad it is the desire to do good and not expect praises for doing what is right.

Thank you Jubal for this great post.

Everything he has said is true to this day ,,,,,,, & that was 70 years ago , theres alot to be said , & theres alot to think about , We can learn alot from this !

The film was NOT BANNED in America it was banned later on in the UK and some of Europe. But not banned in America.

Great post other than that.

Why can't all leaders think this way?!

Wasn't that the style along with Humphrey Bogart? Comrads in arms or what?

If a nation expects to be both ignorant and free, it expects what
never was and never will be. -- President Thomas Jefferson.

It's amazing how timeless this is. As we all advance, we all become less adapt at communication. Sure we have our global networks, our Current, our forums, but we really lack the touch we used to know so well. I thoroughly enjoyed this.

Not much has changed except the NAZIs are smarter, all inclusive now and they run the world. It has just gotten worse.

Charlie Chaplin used his higher consciousness, his soul however you define it, to give us these words of truth and wisdom. Always lead with Love. That is his message, and we can all find it within ourselves to do the same. So very beautiful dare I say angelic in nature, are people. It is our birthright to go on, it is given to us the responsibility to like angels do good works for all the days of our time. Let it be for many millennia to come.
Thank you Jubal. That was beautiful.

i enjoyed this very much thank you!

Wow! That was intense. ^'d

Everybody go and find a Tea Party member and give them a hug!

Having seen him in many funny silent roles,hearing a speech like this from him is pretty wild!!!

propound

wow I had never seen this before -- amazing stuff. Thanks for posting it.

Great post, Jubal. Good to hear inspiring words peace and hope, instead of hate and bigotry.

Excellent, bravo, standing ovation! Great post jubal, repeating history has been our Achilles heel for as long as I can remember. Can you imagine jubal that a communist like me (So I have been labeled) has never seen this clip! Thanks so much, just as I have been wondering if what I strive for has made a difference or if I was just plain crazy!

Voted up! Thanks jubal, this inspiring speech made my day! So much hate talk going on lately, I needed this.

I want to the see the whole movie.....oh well.
Thank you!!!

Thank You Jubal for once again placing something thoughtful and inspiring
on the table........
As long as we keep creating Hitlers...Bin Laden's...Cheneys...and Bushs...
we should not wonder why they exist and flourish......GREED.......
There is no good reason for Hatred.....
There is no bad reason for Love.....
The good news is that somewhere in the Universe this clip is arriving today....
Things like this may save Earth in the future....but the small percentage of
positive to negative does not look good....This tiny planet seems to be polluting the Universe with Hatred........but 10% good can't be bad.......just wish it was the other way around......
Golden Ruler....Johnnie Hargrave

Wow... what a great speech! I know it's a movie but as soon as he said "you people" i knew why he was labeled a communist...

Great stuff Jubal, great post!

yeah, sure am glad Michele Obama is no longer ashamed of her country because I grow more and more ashamed every single day.

Charlie's words still ring true...

It's a good speech, but you forget that it really is a MOVIE speech.
What he's saying there, he's saying because it's the opposite of the person he's parodying: Adolph Hitler.
He wasn't saying those things just because he meant them, but to show how truly horrible Hitler was.ie. if it wasn't for Hitler, or if Hitler had been preaching something else, that speech either would not have existed or been very different.

My fave lines are
-we think too much to Feel!
and:
-Our knowledge has made us cynical

That was such a beautiful speech and i see why it was banned over here in America. Its true that people are being turned into machines/robots for control, everyone should hear this and think. I wish everyone would wake up and see whats really going on with our society and government.Peace.

A friend loaned this movie to me recently and I have yet to watch it. That speech is awesome. It's crazy how pertinent all of that was.

Well put.

It's an old lawyer's joke that no good deed goes unpunished. Unfortunately, it's often true. In a smarmy and rather corrupt environment, it takes bravery amounting to foolhardiness to take the first steps down the right path. That's why almost everyone listening to this pitch from Chaplin is going to roll their eyes and cringe. He says what every "freedom" fighter says, but the embarrassing part is that he seems to believe it. And, whoa, that is a dangerous, dangerous thing.

At base, we're all trained to love hypocrisy. We're smothered in it, breathe it, eat it; and, it's no wonder that we expel it as well. We're addicted to hypocrisy, and anything else has the odor of unreality and a sickening sweetness rather than our preferred perfume of double talk, secret stratagem and self-deception.

And that is why the right path is necessarily surreptitious. And if you're lucky, you put together your dreamed up utopian contraption (a book, a business, some "thing") brick by brick, making it strong, to protect your creation from the realists and the crooks.

god damn!

"The hate of men will pass and dictators die."

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

"Speak - it is our only hope" "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 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."