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The Greatest Speech ever made!

B5CB5C Veteran
edited September 2011 in General Banter


Comments

  • MountainsMountains Veteran
    Indeed... Hadn't seen that in eons. Thanks for posting!
  • riverflowriverflow Veteran
    Love it.

    ...and you wonder why he was accused of "unamerican activities" by McCarthy and harassed by the FBI. Hoover did succeed in making sure he didn't set foot again in the US.


  • personperson Don't believe everything you think The liminal space Veteran
    Great. Beautiful video editing too.

    I think its fitting that someone known for comedic acting in silent movies should have his voice heard in this way.
  • genkakugenkaku Northampton, Mass. U.S.A. Veteran
    edited September 2011
    This Chaplin exhortation was probably delivered at around the time in the 1930's when former Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, TWO-time winner of the medal of honor, went on something of a rampage around the United States, inveighing against the wars with which he had first-hand experience.

    As for example: "War is a Racket" ... http://www.lexrex.com/enlightened/articles/warisaracket.htm

    It is not hard to imagine the following short excerpt coming from the mouth of Michael Moore, 50-60 years later:

    WELL, it's [war] a racket, all right.

    A few profit – and the many pay. But there is a way to stop it. You can't end it by disarmament conferences. You can't eliminate it by peace parleys at Geneva. Well-meaning but impractical groups can't wipe it out by resolutions. It can be smashed effectively only by taking the profit out of war.

    The only way to smash this racket is to conscript capital and industry and labor before the nations manhood can be conscripted. One month before the Government can conscript the young men of the nation – it must conscript capital and industry and labor. Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our munitions makers and our shipbuilders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all the other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted – to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

    Let the workers in these plants get the same wages – all the workers, all presidents, all executives, all directors, all managers, all bankers –

    yes, and all generals and all admirals and all officers and all politicians and all government office holders – everyone in the nation be restricted to a total monthly income not to exceed that paid to the soldier in the trenches!
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