Business

The age for reimagining work

We want to be free; we want to be free to do what we want to do.

24 March 2022

The silent film Modern Times was made in 1936 by genius filmmaker Charlie Chaplin. The world of Little Tramp – the film’s emblematic character – is a satirical and comic depiction of the Great Depression's bleak employment and financial situation. Because of industrialisation and efficiency gained by mechanising human jobs, Chaplin saw his age as a product of technological menace (a foreboding of a future he could not imagine).

Workers were rendered unnecessary, and the foremen, managers, and department heads with authority over them grew in stature and influence as a result. Modern Times may be more relevant now than it has ever been. In the battle to avoid alienation and preserve humanity in a modern, automated world, the film reflects powerfully on difficulties facing our current day.

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