Charlie Chaplin remains one of the most iconic actors. With good reason, his character of the Tramp will likely be the way most people remember him. However, There is another very significant character from Chaplin; The Great Dictator.
Much has bee written on the movie, but I’d like to take a moment and look at the scene of “the speech”. I’ve included the clip, and a particular passage below. What do you think? Is this the position of someone that holds this portion of the Gospel of Luke as legitamite or relevant?
“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 and 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.”
While I would quivel with the virtue of democracy that the Dictator shows, I also recognize the ignorance most people have to the term and the hazards it brings. Maybe that will be a topic another day.
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