The Great Speech
Video
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 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 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 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....
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 fulfil that promise! 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 all men's happiness. Soldiers! in the name of democracy, let us all unite!
It is quite amazing how the "Little Tramp" Charlie Chaplin said these words in the movie "The Great Dictator". The year was 1940. The US had not yet entered the war. Times were tough. But read/listen to the whole speech. It seems to me that Charlie Chaplin is speaking to us today. Virtually everything he says in this speech is relevant to us today. Greed, hate, power have taken control of government. The people have become cynical because individually, we are powerless to these people, the 1%. But as the people in Turkey are showing us, united we have power. We must unit to take back our power. We need to make hate and greed things that are despised. Can you hate hate? That may seem hypocritical, but if there is anything that I hate it is hate and disrespect. We must begin the battle to return this country, dare I say, the world to a more caring people.
Lastly, there is another Great Speech, one that has a call to action.
Another appropriate video
It would be nice if we took this as a call to action for a day when we can express our anger, frustration, and unite to stand up to the "powers that be". I think we have a day like that. July 4. Independence Day. We should have that day be a rally day. Country wide, march. At night, bang pots, blink lights. Show the government that we are like the crazy news guy on Network. "We're as mad as hell and we aren't going to take this anymore". We need to do this. The time is right. We need to Occupy everything. Bring Occupy back. We need to make a strong statement.