Men on Strike

American society has become anti-male. Men are sensing the backlash and are responding. They're dropping out of college, leaving the workforce, and avoiding marriage and fatherhood at alarming rates. The trend is so pronounced that a number of books have been written about this man-child phenomenon, concluding that men have taken a vacation from responsibility. But why should men participate in a system that seems to be increasingly stacked against them?

By the time Modern Times was released in 1936, talking pictures had been established for almost a decade. The Chaplin archives reveal that Charlie Chaplin contemplated making Modern Times as his first “talkie”, but in the end he used sound effects, sparse recorded voices - like the factory manager on a video-surveillance screen in the men’s restrooms – and his own musical score, which he began working on in 1935.Later the song SMILE from the film became a classic, still sung and recorded by many.