The Great Dictator

Hope...
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 men - 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 things
cries out for the goodness in man -
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 has come 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 these brutes -
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
and 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 men !
With the love of humanity
in your hearts !
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 fulfil that promise.
They never will !
Dictators free themselves
but they enslave the people.
Now 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 the happiness
of us all.
Soldiers, in the name of democracy,
let us unite !
Hannah, can you hear me ?
Wherever you are, look up !
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 greed,
their hate and their 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.
Look up, Hannah !
Look up !