Charlie Chaplin as 20th Century Visionary
It was seen as suspect that he never took out American citizenship, but this was appropriate. He was a citizen of the world who spoke for all peoples everywhere.
“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…”— excerpt from his final speech in The Great Dictator.
There is no shortage of authoritarianism today. This is what happens when incompetent leaders lose control of their narratives and lash out at the world in so many stupid and demented ways. They end up looking like a bunch of infantilized idiots on killing sprees and the death and destruction continues to escalate. They are so full of spite they destroy what they can’t have. They resort to absurdities playing the game they have lost. They have lost control of their narrative appearing as the fools they are, trying to lie their way out of a disaster of their own creation. Their lies are no longer reassuring but totally transparent.
They are possessed souls who have sold themselves into the slavery of the vested interests who control them and in betrayal of the populations they are supposed to serve, where people come last not first. There is so much money for the having and too much unaccountable power fully abused. They fall from such dizzying heights as the hydra-headed monster emerges from its lair.
There was time when democracy was seen as a bad thing, “the people”were not worthy of democracy, “being fickle, unstable incapable of rational thought: the headless multitude, the many-headed monster.” As it is, the elites who are supposed to lead and govern have crushed democracy out of existence as it is a process and discipline requiring good people of honesty and integrity. They have fed the monster hydra-headed monster for too long and it is out of their control, now it is eating them alive.
In modern times there is a whole list of very ugly monster heads all created in the dark halls of power where demented power brokers hang their hats. Doing a head count, there is imperialism, neocolonialism, neoliberalism, war, genocide, fascism, totalitarianism, militarism, predatory capitalism, criminal corporatism, megalomania.
Chaplin was the celebrated entertainer and king of vaudeville in his time. He was also not shy about using his celebrity to make political and social commentary. Modern Times was loaded with humor but it was also sharp edged commentary on what the capitalist age was doing to people. It was very predictive of what was to come as corporate capitalism has grown into the monstrous war machine that now enslaves the west.
Chaplin in his artistry was staging a personal rebellion against the growing authoritarianism and contempt the capitalist class has for the peoples; and the growing abyss between the capitalist class and the working class to today where the hydra headed monsters are destroying western civilization.
In 1940 Chaplin made a bolder statement when he produced the The Great Dictator. It was a comic satire on Hitler’s Germany and the war then in progress. His final speech was an eloquent plea for humanity, but of course to no avail as once the wheels of war are set in motion there is no stopping them; especially when this was the world’s first corporate war where huge fortunes were being made.
Hitler’s war machine was handsomely financed by western investors, under the auspices of the Dulles brothers, which led to the post war establishment of the MICC( Military Industrial Congressional Complex) which presides over the perpetual warfare of today. For the west war became an “essential industry” and the USA was converted to a warfare state.
The Cold War, immediately following WW ll had more to do with justifying America’s militarism than fighting communism. The new warfare state required a nemesis/ scapegoat and the USSR was it. It would quickly resort to cutting its new teeth with wars in Korea and Vietnam.
Chaplin’s final speech in The Great Dictator is just as applicable now as it was 84 years ago as the same dark forces are at work now as then, and the consequences much more devastating
The notorious McCarthy hearings were held in 1957. In order to cleanse the budding warfare state of any communists or socialists. US Senator Joseph MacCarthy held his famous witch hunt where thousands of careers were destroyed through rumor and innuendo. It was eventually shutdown because it was irresponsibly making such outlandish claims against groups and individuals.
The leftist-idealism of Chaplin drew the wrath of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, another communist witch hunter. Chaplin was under surveillance to see if he supported or associated with communist factions or if he could caught on tax evasion.
After assembling a 2000 page file on Chaplin it was closed as there was nothing in it that could lead to indictments against him. He eventually left America to live in exile in Switzerland.
It was seen as suspect that he never took out American citizenship, but this was appropriate. He was a citizen of the world who spoke for all peoples everywhere.
At one point he received a telegram from government officials asking point blank if he was a communist, or ever had been a communist? His equally blunt reply was, " No I am a peace monger.”
Chaplin’s final speech echoes through time and is now more relevant then ever. It takes full measure of how far the war mongers have fallen since his time. They are the predators incapable of living in a world community where the rights of all must be respected.
There is a Charlie Chaplin museum in Vevey, Switzerland - some of his descendants still live in this area (Lake Geneva or Lake Leman). It is said that when Chaplin did "The Great Dictator" and later realizing what went on in Germany, he is said to have stated regretting having done this film. I love the line "I like peace...a piece of (and then proceeded to name countries)".
Great read ! Thank you