The Great Dictator is a 1940 film made by Charlie Chapman. It is a story of a good man, a Jewish barber, who saves the life of a wounded pilot during World War 2. During his rescue, this Jewish barber receives a concussion and loses his memory. He and the pilot try to escape the Nazis and somehow are able to dress up in German uniform to help them get away unrecognized. But the Jewish barber, who is played by Charlie Chapman, looks almost identical to Adolf Hitler. In the mix-up, he is urged to speak to the soldiers and gives a speech completely opposite, and diametrically opposed to anything the real Hitler would have said.
The first time I saw this scene combined with the music from Hans Zimmer, I was taken back at how powerful it was. It stirred in my mind the plea and cry we hear from men and women called to speak in Christ's name today, called to cry repentance, to preach faith and devotion to God and to one another. They plead for unity, for love, kindness, for gentleness, and at the same time stand by morals and principles, never condoning acts contrary to our Divine nature.
I've been reading in the scriptures and pondering the constant rejection of the prophets of God. In our family study, we are reading about Abinadi. In my personal study, I'm reading in the end of 1 Nephi where "even the very God of Israel... men trample under their feet;... they set him at naught, and hearken not to the voice of his counsels." (1 Ne. 19:7) "They turn their hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders, and the power and glory of the God of Israel. And because they turn their hearts aside, saith the prophet, and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh, and perish" (1 Ne. 19:13,14)
As we approach this weekend and have this wonderful opportunity to hear the word of God spoken by the mouths of His prophets, I pray we will not let their cries fall on deaf ears, that we will not "trample them under our feet" but that we will take them into our hearts, treasure them, live by them, and teach them. The time we have on this earth is a gift to us. For myself, I desire to use it better... for it will slip quickly out of my grasp. There is so much work to be done. I pray that I will be inspired to be about the work that matters most.
-Alicia
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!"
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