The Great Dictator

"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....

The aeroplane 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, liberty will never perish. .....

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. 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!"

- Charlie Chaplin as The Jewish Barber, "The Great Dictator" (1940)

The Power of "isms"

I can honestly say that I am a different person than I was. I have grown and I have changed.

I am different.

The pink glasses are off. The world looks like a different place.

Why do we view life through our own experiences? Is it because we have no one else's experiences to use? No. It's because everything is easy for us. We haven't ever had to walk in anyone else's shoes. We can keep our own, comfortable, familiar shoes on and not worry about the comfort of anyone else's feet.

We don't have to worry about being killed because we are different. We don't have to worry about ever being refused anything. Yes, I will get paid 76 cents on every dollar, but at least I was hired. At least I am paid.

Every day I drive to my job and see 30 homeless people under the overpass. Do you think they are lazy? Do you think they WANT to live like that? Life handed them the shit stick and they had no choice but to take it. Society forced them to take the stick and not ask questions.

Capital"ISM"

I'm sick of indifference. I'm sick of passiveness. I WILL DO SOMETHING.

Murder is NEVER okay. Not even when someone tells you it is noble.

Racism is scary. It is not a joke. You cannot be "not racist"... only "anti-racist."

Letting someone hurt others is the same as doing it yourself.

LOOK AROUND.

Open your eyes wide.

Racism
Agism
Shapism
Heterocentrism
Classism
Anti-sematism
Sexism

Even a passive oppressor is still an oppressor.

I have been a passive opressor in the past and I apologize. I have sat with my mouth closed and thought that if I ignored it, it might dissapear.

It didn't.