But, We Have Lost The Way

The way of life can be free and beautiful. But we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls…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. – Charlie Chaplin

This is an excerpt from the comedy The Great Dictator released in 1940. If you haven’t yet seen this movie, I would highly suggest watching it. One very inspiring rendition of the speech that I quoted above can be found on youtube and is entitled “The Greatest Speech Ever Made” which has garnered over 13 million views as of the writing of this post.

I must admit, I had not seen the movie let alone heard the speech until just a few months ago. When I finally did, I was really captured by each and every word that was spoken in Chaplin’s speech. In fact, it brought an extreme variation of emotions to the forefront of my mind. I felt everything from despair and shame to courage and hope.

Interestingly, the context of the movie/speech is that it was produced during the beginning of World War II. Although it is labeled as a comedy, the film ideologically opposed the rising Nazi regime and therefore had a serious undertone to it. Even though it had a noticeable application to the World War II era, I believe that we can apply the words from this speech to our society today.