Forum Post: This Is What We Stand For
Posted 13 years ago on Nov. 12, 2011, 9:27 p.m. EST by TrevorMnemonic
(5827)
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
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 airplane 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 many throughout the world, 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 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 fulfill that promise. They never will! Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfill 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!
Dear Government,
We don't want your insufficient government programs, handouts or so-called solutions to the masses that YOU "say" is going to help us.
Like meager portion-controlled feedings to animals, for the consumption by the 99%. The 99% want to decide what is best for us, by having fair and equal representation in our government. Not a government that is bought and paid for by the 1%. Not a government that decides when and how much to feed us our meager portion-controlled programs.
You miscalculated the portion-controlled feedings.
The 99% are now starving. Starving for our fair and equal representation in government.
Repectfully, 99% of the People.
I love this speech.
Huge props the the legend Charlie Chaplin for writing it.
And the civilized nations called Peace! Peace! So they were conquered peacefully. There was no bloodshed only financial bleeding and the dignity that is lost from selling your future.
http://occupywallst.org/forum/the-war-with-america-was-won-before-the-first-shot/
Exactly. We need OWS approved businesses to buy from and fuck over all these bullshit thugs that think they can run our government.
Charlie Chaplin <3 I have this speech on my mp3 player. Beautiful
I need to put it on a cd so I can blast it in my car everywhere I go.
I've always felt our wisest men and woman pursue the arts for it is true creation. It's people with minds like this that we need as our leaders. Not these Machine Men with Machine Minds.
Ah but the saddest truth of it all, is that the only way for humanity to reach happiness, is if we change ourselves first. In the very least, greed and corruption of cultures all over the world has frozen us in time. We're losing our way to where we wanted to go, and we're losing what potential humanity has. "The way of life can be free and beautiful". But it can only be, when people start believing in it.
True true
It'll be different someday. I believe the future is bright - Once we rid ourselves of these machines that chain us down.
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For the record, Chaplin meant that speech to address both Hitler and Stalin. One, a National Socialist. The other, a Communist. Keep that in mind. He was a great guy, but he was also in the 1%.
Charlie had a different government than we have now.
Stalin and Hitler were actually fascist dictators. They just claimed to be those things. Nothing about socialism has anything to do with world domination and mass killings of innocent people.
Fact: UN sanctions on Iraq from 1990 to 1996 killed 500,000 innocent Iraqi children. Madeline Albright said "it was necessary."
Our government has lied about why we've been at war with Iraq, time after time. From bush to obama
No disagreements. But socialist invariably leads to fascism as you have to resort to a police state to control the outflow of capital.
haha... i got a feeling the Chinese are really, really, not gonna like this.
A worldview needs a foundation for making such claims, one that is stronger than "human beings are like that." Obviously, they are not all like that, which is why we have problems. A naturalistic worldview cannot support such lofty goals.
"only the unloved hate; the unloved and the UNNATURAL"
That's why that part is there. Charlie also calls them Machine Men with Machine Minds.
Every man and woman has the ability to love. Except maybe sociopaths. Some just get corrupted along the way. Just some friendly input
hate is natural
no it's actually not. There should be no reason to hate.
The 5 stages of grief, hate is perfectly natural.
well yeah that kind of hate... so valid point. I mainly meant the kind that makes people discriminate and persecute and follow through on their thoughts.
also hate is infectious. When someone hates a person, that person will generally hate them back. It's infectious. Horribly infectious. But I believe in justice and men of peace do not provoke. But those men can be provoked and that is justified with a response as well as the warrant of justice at times. Our US dollar is decreasing in value every year. Our country is in massive levels of debt.
I agree with you but it happens, the problem with the speech is that it promotes progress in the name of progress, and although well intentioned is a dangerous idea.
how is it dangerous?
History is full of lessons when it comes to this. When you try to move forward without fully learning from past mistakes you end up moving in a circle. "in the name of democracy" does not take into account the dangers of mob rule.
Such a GOP cop out. Calling democracy mob rule like the rule of the few is better than the rule of the majority. This is not a war against each other. Our government is corrupt and they're taking away our constitutional rights that our founding fathers fought and some even died for. Our government is raging false wars and have lied countless times about the War in Iraq from Bush to Obama.
The rule of a constitution is far better than democracy. As our founding fathers put it "two wolfs and a sheep deciding on what is for dinner"
You're talking about a couple wolves in a world of sheep with the few having the power.
Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.
I thought hate leads to the Dark Side