From The Great Dictator: "Adenoid Hynkel" The Barber Speaks. Charlie Chaplin Addresses Bush, Cheney, et al.

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April 15, 2008, Volume 16 Nr. 9, Issue 240

From The Great Dictator: "Adenoid Hynkel" The Barber Speaks.
Charlie Chaplin Addresses Bush, Cheney, et al.

I have written about creeping fascism in the United States in numerous issues of Metaphoria going back many years. The writings include the following articles:

Under the Guise of Freedom: Fascism's Ultimate Destination
http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0712.html

The Fascist Ego and the Future http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0505.html

Three Veterans: And they say it couldn't happen here
http://www.metaphoria.org/ac4t0304.html

Finally, the main stream corporate media is presenting evidence that the major executive branch players with the U.S. government were directing torture straight from the people's house, the White House. These new revelations are adding to the growing concern that fascism is alive and well in USA, and that something has gone dramatically and drastically awry during the past seven years of the Bush and Cheney regime. It certainly has.

David Swanson of Afterdowningstreet.org presents a compelling (video) case that George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and their minions must be impeached for their multiple and repeated violations of the United States Constitution and the Geneva Conventions. They also, as the towns of Brattleboro and Marlboro, Vermont, have concluded, must be held accountable for committing war crimes. (See USA Today article here). David Swanson's evidence can be seen in the graphic video presentation located at: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/32778.

After viewing David Swanson's video, "What Does Torture Look Like", I came across the classic film, "The Great Dictator" starring Charlie Chaplin. In this movie, Chaplin plays Adenoid Hynkel, the great and autocratic dictator of Tomania. Chaplin also plays a second character, a Jewish barber, who is an Adenoid Hynkel look-alike. The barber mistaken for the dictator, eventually is maneuvered into making a speech to the great world masses after the successful invasion and conquest of the fictitious country, Osterlich.

Production on the film, "The Great Dictator" began in 1937. The movie was released in 1940. The film was banned in fascist Spain under dictator Francisco Franco until 1975. It was also banned in all countries occupied by Nazi Germany. People concerned about fascism in the U.S.A. would do well to watch "The Great Dictator" while they still can. The address to the people of the world by Adenoid Hynkel, actually given by the Jewish barber masquerading as him, is an address that today is well directed to George W. Bush,. Dick Cheney, their past and present partners in criminality, and the soldiers participating in their illegal and immoral war in Iraq. The address can be viewed here. Information on the movie, "The Great Dictator" can found here.

The performance by Charlie Chaplin is dramatic. Chaplin knew fascism when he saw it back in 1937. If he were alive today, he would know it again.

Charlie Chaplin was banished from the U.S.A. It is what fascists do well. The text of Adenoid Hynkel's address follows. Listen up George, Dick. Listen up, people:

Hynkel: 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's 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 seventeenth chapter of Saint 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 you the future and old age a security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie! They do not fulfill their promise; they never will. Dictators free themselves, but they enslave the people!! Now, let us fight to fulfill 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!!!

Hannah, can you hear me? Wherever you are, 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 hate, their greed and 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, into the future, the glorious future that belongs to you, to me, and to all of us. Look up, Hannah. Look up.