Dictation

Text by Charlie Chaplin, 1940;¹ edited and abridged by Catherin J Pascal Dunk, 2024; profuse thanks to Corselena Ryan for bringing the speech and film to my notice

I don’t want to be an emperor.
I should like to help everyone!

We all want to help one another.
Human beings are like that.

We don’t want to hate and despise one another.
And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

We have lost the way.
Greed has poisoned men’s souls,
barricaded the world with hate,
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.

Knowledge has made us cynical.
Cleverness has made us 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.

Millions of despairing men, women, and little children
are victims of a system
that makes men torture and imprison
innocent people.

You who can hear me,
do not despair.
The misery that is now upon us is
but the passing of greed.

The hate of men will pass,
and dictators die;
the power they took
will return to the people.

Soldiers! Don’t give yourselves to brutes,
men who despise you,
enslave you, regiment your lives,
treat you like cattle,
like cannon fodder.

Don’t give yourselves to these
unnatural men —
machine men!
with machine minds and hearts

You are not machines!
You are not cattle!
You are men!
You have love in your hearts!

Only the unloved hate —
the unloved and the unnatural.
Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery!
Fight for liberty!

“The Kingdom of God is within man” —
not in one man, nor group, you see,
but in all. In us!
We the people.
We have the power.
Power to create happiness.
Let’s make of this life
a wonderful adventure!

Dictators free themselves
by enslaving people!
Let us fight
to free the world —
do away with national barriers —
and with greed, hate and intolerance.

Let us fight for a world of reason,
science and progress;
happiness — for all.
And so,
in the name of democracy,
unite!

1. See the original text here: https://www.charliechaplin.com/en/films/7-The-Great-Dictator/articles/29-The-Final-Speech-from-The-Great-Dictator- ↩︎