Though best known as being a silent movie actor with his own brand of slapstick comedy, Charlie Chaplin was actually so much more.

In 1940, he released the film “The Dictator” and gave one of the most powerful pleas for the unity of mankind that has ever been heard.

Some of you may be familiar with his words, but take a listen to them again and see if they bear any relevance to what is going on in the world today:

Though Chaplin is making his remarks about the innovations of his day, planes and televisions, his words could easily be applied to what is going on in society now.

Think about how connected everyone is through their phones and through the Internet. Yet how many human connections do we make with each other?

How many of us actually know who our neighbors are or what our kids are learning in school?

How many of us take the time to just sit in silence and meditate without the constant need for something to distract us?

Mankind now has the entire wealth of human knowledge at the tip of the fingertips. A trip around the world can be accomplished in days. We are able to explore great depths in the ocean and have made multiple trips to a nearby celestial body in space.

There is almost nothing that we cannot achieve or accomplish with a sense of determination and human ingenuity.

Yet despite all these miraculous breakthroughs that people a couple hundred years ago would have labeled magic, we have to be sure we never lose our humanity and our respect for humankind.

Though Chaplin was one of the greatest silent actors to have ever lived, it is arguably his words in this speech that have had the greatest impact on the world.