Charlie Chaplin’s speech from the iconic cinematic hit, “The Great Dictator,” is an overshadowing mockery of World War Two nostalgia that clashed with conceptions of a guilt ridden dictator who eventually saw an ecumenical need for peace and coexistence for all of humanity. It is nonetheless interesting to speculate if the basis of his oratory is subliminally humanistic. Humanism is an idealistic way that looks at the human condition with exceptional optimism; where there is so much potential for bad, there is also so much potential for good. In this particular speech, Charlie Chaplin’s character underlines a universal need for peace and insists that the vehicle that can bring such a vision into light must derive from a unilateral respect for its undertaking. It seems blatantly evident that Chaplin’s character underestimates the heavy baggage in which ideas bring to the table which is the same reason why heavy handed dialectics will always threaten any ecumenial vision for humanity. In the end, there is always a chance for peace, but its pursuit is only possible through mediums of coexistence as opposed to total integration into a single edict; the latter is nothing more than a hopeless pursuit.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 10:02:19 +0000