On April 16, 1889, actor and director Charlie Chaplin was born , a genius of cinema. On October 15, 1940, Charlie Chaplin presented to the American public ” The Great Dictator “, a work conceived four years earlier, completed in writing in 1938 and filmed in secret in 1939, when England had already declared war on Germany. The film, a parody of Nazism and the figure of Adolf Hitler, is famous for Charlie Chaplin’s Speech to Humanity, which the actor delivers at the end of the film. A hymn in defense of freedom, helping each other, a manifesto for a better world, so much so that it was chosen by Lavazza for its new communication campaign. A new humanity
Charlie Chaplin’s Speech to Humanity already represented a powerful appeal in favor of the awakening of individual sensitivity. Charlie Chaplin wrote and directed the film “The Great Dictator” in 1940. Just that year Hitler had come to power, World War II had just started a year ago and the world could not yet imagine the horror of the Holocaust.
The words of Charlie Chaplin’s speech today take on a strong communicative value, the wish for a recovery and a new humanity that will make progress, sustainability and tolerance the foundations on which to found a new renaissance. A universal hymn that invites men to defend the earth and the freedom that is slowly recovering. Charlie Chaplin’s Speech to Humanity
Words continue to move with their beauty and strength. Here is the text of Charlie Chaplin’s Speech to Humanity.
“I’m sorry. But I don’t want to be an emperor. No, it’s not my job. I don’t want to govern, or conquer anyone; I would like to help everyone if possible: Jews, Aryans, black and white men. All of us, human beings, should always help each other; we should enjoy only the happiness of the neighbor. Don’t hate us and despise each other. In this world there is room for everyone: nature is rich, it is enough for all of us; life can be happy and magnificent. But we have forgotten it. Greed has poisoned our hearts, has plunged the world into hatred, has led us at a goose pace to do the most abject things.
We have the means to wander, but we are closed in on ourselves; the machine of abundance has given us poverty; science has turned us into cynics; skill has made us hard and bad. We think too much and feel little. More than machinery, we need humanity. More than empowering, we need kindness and kindness. Without these qualities, life is violence, all is lost. Aviation and radio have brought people together.
The very nature of these inventions demands the goodness of man, demands universal brotherhood, the union of humanity. Even now my voice reaches millions of people around the world, millions of desperate men, women, children. Victims of a system that requires men to torture and imprison innocent people.
To those who hear me, I say: do not despair, the greed that commands us is only a passing evil. The bitterness of men who fear the ways of human progress, the hatred of men disappears together with the dictators. And the power they took from the people will return to the people. And whatever means they use, freedom cannot be suppressed. Soldiers! Don’t give in to brutes! Men who exploit you! They tell you how to live! What to do! What to say! What to think! Who regiment you! They condition you! They treat you like beasts! Do not give yourselves to these people without a soul!
Machine men, with machines instead of brains and hearts. You are not machines, you are not beasts, you are men! You have the love of humanity in your heart. You do not hate those who hate only those who do not have the love of others. Soldiers! Do not defend slavery! But freedom!
Remember, promising you these things the brutes came to power: they lied, they didn’t keep those promises and they never will. Dictators are perhaps free because they enslave the people. Then let’s fight to keep those promises! Let’s fight to free the world by removing borders and barriers! Eliminating greed, hatred and intolerance! We fight for a reasonable world; a world in which science and progress give all men well-being. Soldiers! In the name of democracy, all stand united! “
