Showing posts with label Charlie Chaplin. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Charlie Chaplin. Show all posts

Sunday 27 September 2020

PASSPORTS





They have every man in a straitjacket and without a passport he can’t move a toe.

But if you will allow me to finish…

If a free world they violate the natural rights of every citizen.


But you don’t let me fully…


They have become the weapons of political despots.


Yes but may I…


And if you don’t think as they think, you deprived of your passport.

But, will you allow me…

To leave a country is like breaking out of jail, and to enter a country is like going through an eye of a needle.

But…


Am I free to travel?


Of course, you are free to travel!


Only with a passport!

Will you allow me to say some…


Only with a passport!


Ba…


Do animals need passport?


Ae...ae. Are you finished?

It’s incorrigible that in this atomic age of speed we are shut in and shut out by passport.



Gandhi: 
I want to welcome you all.
 Every one of you.  
We have no secrets.

Let us begin by being clear about General Smuts' new law : 
All Indians must now be fingerprinted, like criminals, 
men and women.

No marriage, other than a Christian marriage, is considered valid. 
Under this Act, our wives and mothers are whores, 
and every man here is a bastard.

Kahn: 
He has become quite good at this.

 

Gandhi: 
And our Policemen, passing an Indian dwelling -- I will not call them homes -- may enter and demand the card of any Indian woman whose dwelling it is.

Understand, he does not have to stand at The Door.
He may enter.

Audience Member #1: 
I will not allow it.

Audience Member #2: 
I swear to Allah: I'll kill the man who offers that insult to my Home and my Wife. And, let them hang me.

 


Audience Member #3:
I say, talk means nothing! Kill a few officials before they disgrace one Indian woman! 
Then, they might think twice about such laws!

Audience Member #4: 
In that cause, I would be willing to die!!

Gandhi: 
I praise such courage. 
I need such courage because in this cause I, too, am prepared to die. 
But, my friend, there is no cause for which I am prepared to kill. 

Whatever they do to us, we will attack no one, kill no one, 
but we will not give our fingerprints -- not one of us.  

They will imprison us, and they will fine us. 
They will seize our possessions, but they cannot take away our self-respect if we do not give it to them.



Audience Member #5
Have you been to prison?! They beat us and torture us! I say that we should --

Gandhi: 
I am asking you to fight! 
To fight against their anger, not to provoke it.

We will not strike a blow, but we will receive them. 
And through our pain we will make them see their injustice, and it will hurt -- as all fighting hurts. 

But we cannot lose. We cannot. 

They may torture my body, break my bones, even kill me. 
Then, they will have my dead body -- not my obedience.

We are Hindu and Muslim, children of God, each one of us.

Let us take a solemn oath, in His name, that come what may we will not submit to this law.


Sunday 14 June 2020

POD



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 :
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. 



 Now, THIS is Podracing!

pod (n.1)
"seed of beans," 1680s, of uncertain origin; found earlier in podware "seed of legumes, seed grain" (mid-15c.), which had a parallel form codware "husked or seeded plants" (late 14c.), related to cod "husk of seeded plants," which was in Old English. 

In reference to pregnancy from 1890; in reference to a round belly from 1825. Meaning "detachable body of an aircraft" is from 1950. Pod people (1956) is from movie "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," based on novel by Jack Finney.


pod (n.2)
"herd of whales or seals," 1827, American English, of unknown origin.


Sunday 26 April 2020

The Great Dictator (1940)


Note, any resemblance between Hynkle the Dictator and the Jewish Barber is purely co-incidental. 

This is a story of a period between two World Wars - an interim in which Insanity cut loose. 

Liberty took a nose dive, and Humanity was kicked around somewhat.





Herr Garbitsch :
"Corona veniat electis."
Victory shall come to The Worthy.

Today, Democracy, Liberty, and Equality are words to fool The People.
No nation can progress with such ideas.
They stand in the way of action.
Therefore, we frankly abolish them.

In the future, each man will serve the interest of The State with absolute obedience.
Let him who refuses beware!
The rights of citizenship will be taken away from all Jews and other non-Aryans.

They are inferior and therefore enemies of the state. It is the duty of all true Aryans to hate and despise them.

Henceforth this nation is annexed to the Tomanian Empire, and the people of this nation will obey the laws bestowed upon us by our great leader, the Dictator of Tomainia, the conqueror of Osterlich, the future Emperor of The World!

Schultz :
You speak.

A Jewish Barber :
I can't.

Schultz :
You must.
It's our only hope.




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 :
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 Menwho 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 or 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 Menwith 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 Mena chance to work, that will give youth the future and old age a security. 

By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! 

They do not fulfil their 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!

[Cheers]

Hannah, can you hear me? 
Wherever you are, look up, Hannah. 

The clouds are lifting. 
The Sun is breaking through. 

We are coming out of The Darkness into The light. 

We are coming into a New World, a Kindlier World, where Men will rise above their hate, their greed and brutality. 

Look up, Hannah. The Soul of Man has been given wings, and at last he is beginning to fly. 

He is flying into the rainbow — into the light of hope, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me and to all of us. 

Look up, Hannah. Look up.