Are We Civilized? (1934)

1
Dr. mother dear see you.
Charmian wait it's my doctor good
morning Paolo well doctor dear this is a
place well how are you Paul
I was just tapping and I thought I might
possibly see your father won't you sit
down I'll send for him thank you how
remarkable patient I'll let you judge
for yourself please tell my father that
the doctor wishes seen dad will be glad
to see you I'm sure he's often told
friends that having the top of his skull
blown off in the war was a blessing in
disguise yes because doctor he says you
must have put something in his head he
didn't have before I don't understand
well you see dad's greatest success has
been achieved sensible would you go for
your father always was a brainy man
stupid he went to America so soon after
the war too bad his brains couldn't have
served the country of his birth well you
know daddy's a free thinker he needed
room to expand
you couldn't tie him down to any one
country yeah but the Sun is different
there what does your father think of
- your romance with the daughter of our
- beloved general mass is delighted came.
Over to attend the wedding
you see the general and father were
bought of tramble
time brings many changes the war now the
new government and you know it is
rumored Paul that your father came over
here to break off your romance with
Norma oh that's not true doctor
why father in the general Paul
my old friend oh thank you my old friend
dr. Dear as I live and breathe
I'm amazed that you still do live and
breathe this you should be doctor oh it
seldom is that a patient survives the
city and the thing you with a silver
plate first foul for the past 60 years
you know it served me very well but
thanks to you not bad not at all bad for
a quick job done behind the lines.
Oh your operation is all right team
- exclusive to dying eyes within an enemy
- prison camp yeah don't you two start.
Living the war all over again
it's a sign we're giving old told you
not we don't just to say involve take my
advice and don't commit yourself to get
too excited I see you're afraid I might
get a short service Oh
outside of occasional dizzy spells
doctor but I wouldn't know that my head
was off the gold standard
well it's your head well you're just as
irresponsible as ever never obey a
doctor when you're well that's one of my
models they tell me doctor here what
kind of an experiment is this country
attempting in government well I might
ask you the same questions about America
you see that you two can't keep
discussing major operations which
reminds me that I'm due at the hospital
to perform on in exactly 15 minutes but
I see you tonight it at the dinner and
you're all of these dinners doctor tis
my head that you should be worrying
about my stomach perhaps perhaps my
doctor is talking again so thank you I
will call I see you tonight
goodbye Lorelai goodbye
I'm fellow doctor here and a great
surgeon an awful braggart
what you know I don't see anything so
remarkable about this operation he
performed on my head why dad this is
done and he removed my brains and
replaced him with sawdust and then I had
continued to function like a normal man
in he'd had something to prove Oh Mary
see you menopause what is it Tom watch
some more cables the government has
cancelled this public mr. Franklin
canceling our news flashes yes
censorship is getting tighter every day
what they kill today why the story of
the burning of the sense of books also
your article on the new government and
its suppression of the freedom of the
press how long's this been going on
started several days ago they put a
sensor on at the cabling offices and no
news can lead the country dad unless it
meets with government approval well
looks like it's a good thing that I came
over here we're going to get the real
news out of this country my son if we
have the smugness maybe things will be
different after fall marries the
daughter of the chief of the sensitive.
Bureau maybe then he left us where -
absolute secrecy nothing like that these
are copy here Tom I'll see what I can do
okay
I'm thinking maybe method in this
romance Oh nonsense dad Norman I love
each other well I wrote doubt about that
ball and I think she's a wonderful girl
but knowing Phoenix Mothma sister boy I
can see now that he is chief of the
censorship Bureau oh he would welcome a
- family time with a junior member of the
- world's most powerful new syndicate are.
You inferring that I would permit
sentiment to
interfere with our business there's
episode doesn't that normal or father do
here any minute
the general wants to speak to you about
your reception exploded give me an
opportunity to ask him just how far
intends to go with this suppressing a
free speech listen bad that's just what
I don't want you to be careful what you
say dad Paul if this new government
intends to take away the freedom of
speech and the freedom of the press at
anytime
come right in there good morning you
know I thought state officials never got
up the beam you know
well you look pretty enough to kiss you
suppose your perspective father-in-law
because why not mmm
hey nothing like starting the day out
right well Rick the few 20 years younger
he's a wonderful except all the charm
from my mother mother told Lillian she
knows I haven't much time this morning
Paul people please me good you know I
thought this would get to socialism Paul
if you in normal will excuse it that's
not necessary I mean it may not be
necessary but perhaps it might come mmm
well you know no I thought good Phoenix
you pardon me if I find it rather
difficult to become accustomed to your
formality an office makes finance on one
wall there's a demand that one should
take himself too seriously
oh come now here we are you one of the
foremost men of your country and I one
of the foremost news publicist yes
perhaps in the world what does it all
mean I've seen that the patient's
position made lost overnight so are you
living in the stream changeable world
Phoenix that's why we shouldn't take
ourselves to CDs I have no time for
philosophizing Paul the dinner in your
honor tonight wait oh yes they're
together can't answer that either
oh yes of course you will be a part of
my dear friend a most excellent
opportunity of rendering a distinguished
service to the country of your birth
means in what you may say tonight oh I
understand and to be bribed with a
dinner and flattered into becoming one
of your chief propagandist it I'm sorry
Paul but I cannot appreciate your sense
of humor oh why middle and Z we were we
were boys together
this is what I call the real common
normal why don't you advance the date of
our wedding I'm really cool d-did you
know father insisted on marriage get
state affairs but if he has to break his
vision don't tell me we're gonna have to
suffer all that pomp and ceremony I'm
afraid there's a penalty I paid to be
the door to the gender penalty you pay
for making you love you
why can't we steal away to some other
country we learn and start another world
war
don't be foolish but Norma I waited so
long
now some should never have permitted
these the land is really living up to
the principles of a business I found it
giving to the public the truth at all
times these articles claim they
criticize our policies they should not
only have been canceled by our sensor
but confiscated and destroyed.
Gillies like octane that this be a
lesson to your son if he thinks that his
engagement in law entitles you to take
limit is what the problem with you is
you're too internationally minded an
order you think that I am I am going to
tell you just what you are
you're just too sweet lovable old fool
and I hereby declare this international
bevel a draw get this fair enough it's I
guess a ball and to think of my giving a
dinner tonight in your since you are
suppressing the press in the right of
free speech I hope you don't suppress
your dad general Buckner is ruthless
oh you think you're knowing what you
don't you stop it's nothing even to the
breaking off my engagement was not well
he'll be nothing the time now don't you
worry just leave these things to me okay
now forget it
stop worrying son and excuse me now I
must get to work on my speech for that
ladies and gentlemen while making you
deputy Givens about you are serious
boxers
like the flowers
twice lady winner per talk and tonight
we welcome back to his native land a man
whose name has become an editorial my
word in every language and Hamlet's of
the civilized world we pay a farmer
citizen the rich ecology that is his due
and we ask him to give us his
impressions of our beloved country under
the view government permit me to have
the honor of presenting the eminent all
Franklin senior
other gave a good send-off splendid
rallies of my native country my dear
friend Felix Bachmann
you know it isn't easy for me to address
you as chief of the censorship Bureau
perhaps it's because I think of you as a
boy when there was no one to censor us
for the many pranks that we played
there are those a long long years ago
Felix but I wonder if we are not after
all still boys under the skin I'm
wondering if both of us wouldn't like to
go back to those carefree fun-loving
days and to our country at a time when
it's people were joyous free with a
happy song on their lips in in their
hearts not in their eyes that is before
we men grew up to an exaggerated sense
of our own importance
this may occur to you as a digression my
friends yet I cannot feel that it is so
well I know that I cannot blot out the
past and the heritage it has left for me
without jeopardizing all that I hold
most dear in my present knowing all this
I feel I feel that I am must say to you
that I have been profoundly shocked I'm
returning to the country of my birth to
find that that an inhuman censorship.
Bureau exists
this new administration has turned its
back from the efforts the constructive
efforts of sensuous and inflated racial
hatred talk about religious intolerance
and it's ruthlessly destroying the
liberties of the people playing do you
realize that the suppressing of the
freedom of speech Free Press means the
surrender of your own personal freedom
the declining the downfall of this
country
I don't understand
and in this dangerous tendency specs to
animation we plunge the world into
another talking wipeout all the kings
that mankind has made in its long claim
up to the present stage of civilization
you must stop this insanity now before
this beloved country its blood you must
give
17 Park Place okay cap
let any harm come to mr. Franklin
it made it out of my hands like fire
fire but some action will have to be
taken we've come up that this event at
odd recognize come immediately
well practice make a public apology
right if he were not the father of the
man who's to marry refer to that again
some college is the only thing that was
taken
wondering whether he should be safe but
if he is not it may leave two
international complications but if he
lives being at the greater Menace campus
over such where is a danger
you will take my daughter to our home
that your speech tonight may be the
cause of our having to leave this
country not me son
I've never run away from anything in my
life and I'm not starting now you have a
boy of deer recently you can't tell what
they might do
I've never been afraid when I know that
I'm right but Dad your life may be at
stake
did you worry about that why they
wouldn't dare
well they might I've seen men whose
lives crushed out right before my eyes
but you've said the general Buckner
tonight has to be squared I'm going to
Norman trying to get her to intercede
with her father hello
that'll stick the away to time comes my
old friend general father doesn't feel
the injustice of what he has done in his
heart and in his home or even normal but
it's worth trying dad she's the only one
that has any influence with him through
the rule to go to hell with you
dangerous if she mistook your motive
wife you may lose her love and political
intrigue won't mix just the same I'm
going I won't be long
dad
whatever happened
I just want you to know that I'm with
you all the way when I heard what you
said tonight for the first time I
realized what it all meant when I was
proud of your father
thank you my son
thank you
along
don't you understand that dad's life may
be in danger
yes but so may yours where is your
father go to your house you terribly
angry I don't think you listen oh I'm
sure I will if you'll only appeal to him.
Saiki the psychology of our human
existence the evolution of the species
can you imagine upward having books like
the yeah that's a waste of time what are
you men doing here government orders
orders for what destroying all books on
the condemned list what you can you tear
here here
well you can't do this you can't do this
I can know who says we can't be put to
pin sensors realize what you were doing
life is a rare collection these books
cannot be replaced then again not when
we get through whatever what you must
stop you must stop it okay yeah yeah you
stop it I'll kill you you must stop
Felix Felix let's call off these men see
look what they have done but they're
going to burn my son's library we have
come for Franklin to demand the public
apology for your insult to our
government you wish a reflection of what
I said at the dinner precisely we do not
allow foreigners to ridicule us
foreigners I shed my blood for my native
country and because I prospered
afterward in America you call me foreign
we did not come here to play with words
do we receive your apology you do not
then you will be the country of what
your officers here are being dismantled
and your son will leave with your
feelings Felix you can send me out of
the country you can destroy my business
my son your daughter
normal Paul their happiness always we
dreamed they would be married
little kiddies
our grandchildren Phoenix you've said
enough sergeant when you have finished
carrying these books into the street and
burner you you would destroy these books
destroy the records of humanity struggle
throughout the ages well you can't
change one iota of what has happened
though destroying books does not destroy
the truth any more than taking the life
of any human destroys life you will obey
all the Felix how can you do this thing
if you could only remember what the
human race has undergone you would know
that hatred only breeds more hatred
violence only breeds more violence
we have no time verax wait wait
you are going to see I'm going to show
you I'm going to show you out of the
very records of the books you would
destroy I'm going to take you back back
to the time when this earth was born
into these surroundings came a new
preacher of superior intellect our
earliest ancestors primitive man
it took thousands of years for man
develop but as he gained mastery over
the animal world his thoughts began to
refine his physical body
proud of his conquests over nature
the draw fixes on the walls of his claim
this marks the beginning of man's real
problems but the greatest invention that
it more than all else to lay the
foundation of civilization was the
development of writing which it first
took form of the science and sim and
then the alphabet the printed word books
like these and these have done more than
anything else in the world to free
humanity from ignorance and superstition
haven't we heard enough of this drivel
what do we care about this primitive
man's stuff that's the dead past various
dead and I say to you what you call the
dead past is not dead it is alive in us
and we should study our past in order to
determine our present actions think
gentlemen let us go back 3,000 years
before Christ in the land of Egypt
twelve hundred years later Moses founder
of Judaism and the first outstanding
spiritual leader gave the world the Ten.
Commandments
500 years before the birth of Christ
there was born a spiritual leader in
far-off India known as Buddha
Buddha taught that the three great sins
in life are self-indulgence ill-will and
ignorance billions of his followers now
baptize themselves in the river Ganges
long which Buddha preached
at this time Confucius wise man of the.
East gave not only to China but to all
mankind his spiritual teachings that
have spread to many lands and have
endured even to the present day in the
hearts of millions
mighty and tyrannical warriors followed
in the wake of these spiritual teachers
Alexander Hannibal and then curious
season whose conquests changed the map
for the then-known world
and through the ages gentlemen
during the tyrannical rule of these
warlords humanity suffered untold misery
and death paying a tremendous price that
civilization might be advanced
oh is that your yes I wonder what it's
all about you waiting here I'm punchy
what's happened don't worry about me you
wait here
and then gentleman who followed the
greatest event in the history of mankind
known only to the wise men to follow the
star
it was Christ who it says all things
therefore whatsoever ye would that men
should do unto you
even so do ye also unto them what do we
care who live before on what they did
we'll make our own history
you budget
five hundred years after christ was
crucified there was born into the world.
Muhammad the great prophet of the Arabs.
Muhammad again reminded man of his sins
extended his face too many laughs
the blood of countless millions of men
women and children has been sacrificed
in the onward march of civilization men
of great courage throughout the ages
have defined death to preserve the
principles of freedom
I'm sorry miss you should be severely
reprimanded
three great inventors now came as a
great aid to mankind then powder the
sailor's compass and the printing press
gunpowder revolutionize war it brought
an end to the days of knights in armor
one man with a musket proved more deadly
than a hundred men in metal suits
the compass late movement the cross
disease and explore other land extending
trades throughout the world and the
printing list set free a vast store of
knowledge such a store of knowledge
gentlemen as you are now trying to
destroy by half of the book spreaded
around what you were saying about the.
Gunpowder is true it's useful and powder
should be used to preserve not to
destroy mankind to aid of the printing
press the constructive thoughts of men
were carried to the four corners of the
earth
wetting man's appetite for more
knowledge why it was this thirst for
knowledge that inspired the voyage of
Christopher Columbus in 1492 which
resulted in the discovery of America the
new world
200 years later the fill group seeking
religious freedom landed on Plymouth.
Rock and the colonization of America
began
colonists prospered for more than 100
years
then they rebelled against the
guillotine and under the leadership of
George Washington's wonderful little
penis during this revolution the.
Declaration of Independence was written
a document which stands today is an
inspiration to Liberty loving people
throughout the world a document which
proclaimed that all men are created
equal that they are endowed by their
creator with certain inalienable rights
that among these are life liberty and
the pursuit of happiness it is for such
rights gentlemen that humanity has shed
its blood soon after independence was
achieved in America revolution broke out
in France the king and queen and
thousands of the royalty and nobility
were beheaded by the inflamed puppets
and out of the French Revolution sprang
Napoleon Bonaparte who led his nation
through many bloody wars only to end his
days in exile
and less than 100 years later gentlemen
the United States of America which had
extended its boundaries from the
Atlantic to the Pacific was torn by a
great Civil War father against son
brother against brother against the
north in a bloody conflict to decide
issues with the very destiny of the new
world dependent
love the modern city whose guidance
during these days of strife preserves
the nation and helped heal the wounds of
his fellow countrymen
beginning with the nineteenth-century
inventions came thick and fast modern
improvements leap from the minds of men
and revolutionized industry
it was bewildering humanity became dizzy
trying to adjust itself to the
conditions which the use of machinery
had brought about
after all these modern developments one
would presume that the world at that
last week's the first stages of a real
civilization but with all our suppose
culture and enlightenment gentlemen
thirty-three Nations turned all of man's
marvelous inventions into engines of
destruction
the loss of human life was unbelievable
millions were killed and more than 21
million wounded gassed and shell-shocked
it seems incredible that man could be
guilty of such a bit of his fellow man
such savage lust for slaughtered
millions gave them times believing they
were fighting a war to end war and when
the Armistice signed a war really world
went crazy with a joy we shall probably
never see again
following the great rejoicing after the.
Armistice became the fiendish perceived
of money money money the marriage of
competition and overproduction a
financial world blames an orgy of
speculation pilings pay for public upon
paper profit until an over strange
economic system could carry the burden
no longer collapsing beneath a mountain
of selfishness and greed and there
everywhere unrest everywhere humans
trying to find peace and happiness
trying to find it by placing the blame
with the ends of the world upon anyone
else but themselves we are all equally
to blame
we have misused the great gift of life
and life in its turn is misusing us we
are getting back just what we have given
out no more no less I ask you sixteen
years after the end of the so-called war
to end Wars does it look as though the
people of the earth have made a greater
faith or love in one another than they
had in the past centuries look about you
not a very pleasant or hopeful picture
is it hard the desire to promote peace
on earth
good will command days the peoples of
many nations are trembling of another.
Great War a war more terrible more
horrible more devastating than the last
conflict a war that threatens not alone
soldiers on battlefields but a war aimed
at the ruthless destruction of cities
and the merciless slaughter of innocent
humanity
what is all this leading to new
countries of the world prepare in this
manner if they really trust one another
can't humans realize that another great
war means suicide the absolute
destruction of everything that anyone
holds dear and worth why can't you men
see what such horrors are bleeding can't
you see what intolerance has done
throughout the ages now then is man
going to awaken in time or is it going
to take some great catastrophe to awaken
even if man doesn't destroy himself will
mother earth nauseated by man's ways
turn upon him the full wrath of her
elements fire storm tidal wave
earthquake just to remind men that he
isn't as mighty or his haughty as he
thinks
this isn't a dream gentlemen this is a
reality you are sowing the seeds for our
terrible harvest it is not a destroying
a few books it is the destroying of
something in here here perhaps even at
the eleventh hour it is not too late
perhaps mankind may yet save itself from
a cataclysm of the ages perhaps one day
humans will learn to truly love and
trust one another no this has gone far
enough haven't you had your fill of this
general an hour of senseless fattening
general what he has said has been very
very instructive by his philosophy but I
didn't say can change our ideas of
government your rights alter all
Franklin you and your son will leave
this country tomorrow or the government
will deport you.
Phoenix dodging and out your honor
what what Felix Felix episode
hear me hear me you the people of this
beloved country I speak it is the
principle of human freedom you are
destroy what he Flavin about a lot of.
Sunday school stuff don't you people
realize that you are really destroying
yourselves are you playing to the danger
of suppressing individual liberties are
you helping keep fuel upon a fire that
can only lead to your own.
Oh.
Seems to be badly injured dinner.
Terry I'ma do is hope come inside you go
little stupid is impossible dollar Jesus.
Bob up you know Jesus is caught in
submitted by in the matter what is it
how is he doctor
I'm afraid general his old war injury
you mean his plate I'm afraid that the
flow and don't you worry about my plate
old friend
it's alright you you did a fine job
they've destroyed Paul's office he
driver doesn't couldn't beat them
terrible father you must do tell me to
protect mr. Franklin for God you see the
do month
thank
no Norma
he can't see
who are you
lying to the in evidence
but I can receive.
I can see that mankind will never be
truly civilized until all races become
one in spirit understanding brotherly
love
so.
So easy
you get manna making it so hard
so.
If it
it's true Paul
you are right
you mean
critics
if if they could all be if
Paul Paul my boy where are you your
father
you you know
you must kill them my son
Paul
my boy
you
you will tell.
I shall not fade