words of wisdom from a happy yellow circle

coderman coderman at gmail.com
Mon May 22 06:05:02 PDT 2006


worth watching for the audio, amusing for the technical production:

'The Great Dictator - "read" by the Wal-Mart smiley face'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2l6vwAIAqNU

'...  Wal-Mart is embroiled in a legal dispute over the smiley face
image which it wants to trademark in the US. For the first time, the
smiley face speaks!'

text of the speech:
---cut---
"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!"
---end-cut---

:)





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