Soldiers, We Need More Than Machinery!

For those not familiar with Symphony of Science, this is an invitation to something wonderful.  This artist has some of the most inspiring videos on YouTube under the handle, MelodySheep.  Even if you don't like this blog post and the embedded video above, I invite you to at least view this video.  This artist is a master of combining music, science, and rationality into very enjoyable short flicks.

In this particular video embedded above, he uses old Charlie Chaplin satire footage where Chaplin turns Hitler into a liberty lover.  I'm not in the movie business, but I wish I were able to turn fascists into Americans.  Sadly I've found that I lack Chaplin's skill despite trying very hard to replicate it.

The video above is worth watching, particularly the part about soldiers not being machinery.  This is especially important as our technology and machinery increase at a quantum rate, while our humanity struggles to keep up and may even be receding.

The video above quotes from the original Charlie Chaplin footage in which the Hitler character states:

Soldiers! don’t give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts! You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts! You don’t hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don’t fight for slavery! Fight for liberty!

So right.  There is nothing wrong with being a soldier, and a good soldier is a great thing.  But to be so, you must fight for liberty, truly make good on your oath to our Constitution unlike the majority around you, and you must not let the fascists enslave you with their cowardice and their majority social constructions.  Guard your mind from their propaganda and the propaganda of those who have made a round through the revolving door, and who beg you to let them think for you;  those who put on a new uniform, one of "objective" media, or of industry expert, or of politician trying to get you to think as they say, while using the machinery of lies and deception and crowd sourced manufactured consent against you.  Control is exercised in many forms.

Guard your mind from those who do in fact want to be emperor.  As Chaplin's character says, we need more than greed and cleverness.

Fascism in satire is one thing.  Fascism in real life is quite another.  Let us unite against the fascism that is so popular today while pawning itself off as patriotism or concern for society or the "greater good."  Fight fascism despite its clever rationalizations, like America's Greatest Generation did in the 1940s.  Let us unite once more for freedom, this time for the freedom of America!