Charlie Chaplin was precognitive

[hyphenate]

This video is old, and I know it's not about our situation now, but amazingly, it still works and is highly relevant. Enjoy!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BbFs6fQGow



edited for glaring misspelling!

[onehandle]

1. The Great Dictator is his finest film. nt

[Toucano]

2. I think "Modern Times" is better n/t

[Gin]

3. wow..never saw that...perfect for our times too

[rocktivity]

4. Chaplin once entered a Chaplin lookalike contest under an assumed name

and came in third.

:rofl:
rocktivity

[johnnie]

5. Just posted it on my Facebook page

I keep trying to tell people that this doom and gloom is nothing new. Here's what I wrote:


I keep trying to tell people that things haven't changed. A lot of people think that it's a new thing that we are all of a sudden heading in the wrong direction and there is doom and gloom just over the horizon. This is from a movie made in 1940. People need to chill because there is nothing new today than there was ever. Life will go on and people will continue to be brainwashed by TV and the greed of the rich. Relax...we are fine.

[cspanlovr]

6. Uh-oh, corporations don't die. We're through.

[hyphenate]

7. Actually, they can

It's been a struggle for a long period of time, but corporations can and do fail after awhile.

You've heard the term "company man?" It is from times past when companies ran the country, when presidents were ineffectual, and allowed businessmen the run of the white house and the country. We can't forget crime bosses of the 30s, or the likes of millionaires who shaped the country with railways and other transportation companies, going back to the end of the 19th century and later, and "robber barons."

Like it or not, we've had these types around before, and at some point, they come back around. In a way, we let them. We still allow ourselves to be led around by the ear from the automotive industry, even though WE bailed many of them out; we still kowtow to the oil industry with no competition to alternative means of energy; we let the banking industry make up the terms that all of us must endure; and we always let rich and powerful people influence and dictate elements of the country and establishment with little restraint. It hasn't changed in over 100 years, and likely go back even further.

But we also have even worse trouble nowadays, because we are letting the religious right take over the country this time. Science? Naw. Religion? You betcha! The loss of technical expertise is one of the most glaring, when more kids are home-schooled by religious zealots who aren't even teaching their kids. (Yes, I know there are home-schooled kids who aren't raised without science and technology. They are not the ones I'm talking about.) I know that we have a constant battle to make sure kids are raised with a well rounded education, but it's the loudmouth fundies and creationists who are shortchanging their offspring by taking away some of the tools of their future education. When some state and school districts argue about the entire curricula and try to input religious beliefs into the secular education, not only do those students pay, but the whole nation, as other countries speed past the US in national averages and technical know-how.