The Great Dictator
The Great Dictator speech by Charlie Chaplin has become an all time favorite of mine. A message that is as true today as it has been throughout the centuries. It’s a message to awaken us all to recognize that we are in fact one people. While many differences exist amongst us, differences in race, in religion, in ethnicity, culture and background; differences in beliefs in tastes, in ideologies – our differences are not reason to war, to harm, to torment, to imprison and to kill. They are in fact reason to celebrate, to love and to rejoice.
The message of this short speech is simple: what if those in power…empowered? What if influencers, influenced for the good; not simply for the good of themselves, but for the good of humanity. What if instead of pointing fingers at others, we took a long hard stare in the mirror at ourselves and tried to uncover ways in which we can become a part of the solution as opposed to simply adding gas to the flame.
And so a few months back after sharing the original Great Dictator speech with the Life Vest Inside Ambassador’s – I decided that it would pretty amazing if members of the Life Vest Inside Ambassador group from all different parts of the world would come together to recreate the Great Dictator speech – a message for the world, a message we all desperately need to be reminded of.
Why did I choose to do this with members of Life Vest Inside (LVI) community? For me – it was a simple choice. LVI has always prided itself on being a platform where each and every person’s voice can be heard, a place that welcomes you with open arms and where labels don’t exist. The core of this organization is empowerment. Empowering people to truly recognize their value, their potential and the good that only they are able to bring into this world. You see it’s only once a person truly values themselves that they can openly value others for who they are, in spite of their differences. But when a person doesn’t have a real sense of value for who they are and doesn’t wholeheartedly believe in what they believe – fear can arise. Fear that the beliefs of another will infringe upon your own. And so a person is left with one choice, but to force their beliefs and ideologies on those who they are fearful will challenge their own beliefs. This is exactly where conflict, resentment, hate, and war stems from. If only we all felt secure enough in who we are and what we believe, there would exist no reason to challenge others.
People oftentimes use the word freedom without really understanding its essence. True freedom is acknowledging that others believe differently than you do and not feeling the intense desire to alter their beliefs (so long, of course, as those beliefs don’t put into question the life of another). We all have a place in this world, something unique and significant that we can bring that no one else can. Understand that, celebrate that, embrace that and you will no longer feel hatred or resentment towards another.
Perhaps the purpose of us all traveling on this journey that we call life is to bring us to a consciousness that we all play a role and that by fulfilling our role we contribute to the good of humanity as a whole. It is my belief that in this world we have all of the resources, knowledge, manpower and tools we need to ensure that every person is cared for, is healed and is successful. Perhaps it sounds crazy, but that doesn’t make it untrue. To get to where we need to be, we need to start being who we are meant to be; each and every one of us.
You want to stop hate in its tracks? Stop giving into it, stop feeding people someone or something to point fingers at, to place blame on, to use as a scapegoat. No one person is responsible for the hate that exists – to believe so will only turn you into the dictator you’ve hated. We can no longer allow ourselves to be manipulated to believe that SOMEONE or SOMETHING is to blame for our lot in life.
Division is oftentimes caused because something or someone convinced you to believe that it was there to begin with. We are better than this – personally I LOVE all people regardless of what they believe, don’t believe, or whether they agree or disagree with me or my opinions. But nothing will change the fact that I will still LOVE them as a person, respect them and embrace them…no matter what! The moment I loose that, is the moment I am no longer a member of the HUMAN RACE! We are all so interconnected – when will we all finally see that is when hatred will no longer a place in this world. Let’s remember that just because someone may have different thoughts, opinions and beliefs than you do – doesn’t make them wrong and doesn’t make you right. What makes EVERYONE right is embracing people even though YOU may not agree with them.
And so, I hope this video collaboration will serve as a reminder to all of us – that what we all truly crave is PEACE. PEACE can not be fought for – FIGHTING for something will ONLY bring about more reason to fight – it will never lead to peace. Peace must be something we live by, must be something we embody, a way to see ourselves and a way to see the world. So the next time you want to fight for something, consider living for it instead.
Do you want to become part of another worldwide video collaboration? Email me at orly@lifevestinside.com.
A BIG thank YOU goes out to all of the Kindness Ambassador’s who took part in this worldwide video collaboration. Without each of you this video would never have come to be.