The Great Dictator's Speech
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!







