The Great Dictator

Several months ago, after watching some excerpts of Chaplin's movie The Great Dictator at various sites, I bought a copy and watched it last week. The movie was poignant and bittersweet. It captured the megalomania of both Hitler and Mussolini. It spoke of the horror of Nuremberg laws against Jews and it made a farce of how various news sources did not report the context of Hitler's speeches when he called for the extermination of Jews.

Chaplin was unique at the time. When Hollywood refused to make any movies portraying Hitler for what he was, Chaplin used his money and talent to expose Hitler. Though the film was satire, it did offer a glimpse of the horror of what Jews were facing in Germany because of the Nuremberg laws. Chaplin also said he would not have made the film if he had known true extent of Hitler's atrocities against Jews.

After the movie, there was commentary about the impact the movie had. It showed how it served as a beacon of hope to those across Europe who were in the midst of Hitler's blitzkrieg. One of the commentators stood out. The interviewee is Reinhard Spitzy, a former SS officer and member of Hitler's inner circle and he made the comment, "Hitler was no killjoy". You could see the admiration this sick individual still had for Hitler.

Chaplin was courageous for making this movie. He did it at a time when no one wanted to confront the evil Hitler represented. And that same cowardliness is going on in Hollywood and across the world today. Movie makers are afraid of portraying jihadists for what they are: murderers with a sick ideology. Instead, they portray US soldiers as the villains. They produce quasi-documentaries equating the victim of a suicide bomber to the murderer who killed.

This moral sickness extends to the news media. It also extends to college campuses. In the guise of cultural and moral equivalency: suicide bombers(murderers) are seen as being just regular people trying to overcome obstacles. Never mind the obstacles in question are Iraqi, Afghans, Pakistani, Indian, and Israeli children, women, and men. It doesn't seem to matter to these supporters of groups like Al Qaeda, Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad, and other terrorists groups that the victims of these murderers are people full of hopes and dreams.

What is more important to these people full of moral sickness is to tear down those who are fighting against such blatant and inhuman murders: the United States and Israel.

Hollywood needs another Chaplin. The world needs another Churchill. The world needs someone who is willing the confront the jihadists, dictators and totalitarians the world has in its midst today. Ahmadnejad, Nasrallah, Chavez, Mugabe, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and General Ne Win are just a few. That would be the true test of courage: going against the flow of criticizing the United States and Israel and instead confronting those who are the real terrorists and violators of human rights.