written by Sir Charles Chaplin
The Jewish Barber: 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 men, white. We all
want to help one another. Human beings are like that. We want to live by
each others' 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 good 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 as 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
things cries out for the goodness in man; 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 has come 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, liberty will never perish.
(In a passionate raging voice now)
Soldiers! Don't give yourselves to these brutes 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 and 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 men! With the love of humanity in your hearts! Don't
hate! Only the unloved hate; the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers!
Don't fight for slavery! Fight for liberty! In the seventeenth chapter
of St. Luke, it is written that 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. Then in the name of
democracy, let us 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 youth a future and old age a
security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power.
But they lie! They do not fulfil that promise. They never will!
Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people! Now let us fight
to free the world! To do away with national barriers! To 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 the happiness of us all.
Soldiers, in the name of democracy, let us unite!
