Legions must speak out against authoritarianism

November 4, 2025

By Bill Kilpatrick

It has been 107 years since the end of the First World War and 80 years since the end of the Second World War, and as we approach Remembrance Day we need to be reflecting on the state of the world, because right now it feels like people are struggling to remember why we do not want another world war. The German philosopher Karl Jaspers spoke about the importance of historical memory regarding how the Second World War came about, especially if future generations wanted to prevent another war. He said, “That which has happened is a warning. To forget it is guilt. It must be continually remembered. It was possible for this to happen, and it remains possible for it to happen again at any minute. Only in knowledge can it be prevented.” Given that most of the soldiers who had a living memory of the Second World War are almost all gone, the only thing we have left to remember is knowledge and in terms of spreading this knowledge, we are failing miserably.

In my mind there are two important pieces of knowledge, one that came from the First and one from the Second World War, that we are not doing the greatest job of remembering. The first is that regardless of the horror of war there will always be people who enjoy violence and want to dominate and control others. And those people should be kept as far from power as possible.

After World War One, western culture attached itself to the notion that the First World War was a senseless slaughter with no real purpose. This idea was outlined in Erich Maria Remarque’s book All Quiet on the Western Front. And by viewing the war as a senseless slaughter we forgot that there were those who found meaning and purpose in that war. Writers like Ernst Jünger who books, Storm of Steel and War as an Inner Experience, describe much of the same carnage as Remarque but interpret it much differently. For Jünger the battles were exciting and the camaraderie of the trenches was exulted as something noble that far exceeded the ethics and morals of anything that western culture had to offer. War for him was an almost a spiritual experience. It’s important to note that the Nazi’s were ardent supporters of Jünger and his interpretation of the war.

Another person who found meaning in that war was a young corporal named Adolph Hitler. It was in the trenches that he formed his world view that would lead to the greatest slaughter the world had ever seen. According to historian Lawrence Rees, in 1923 Hitler gave a speech that outlined the mindset that would dictate his domestic and foreign policy while in power. He said, “Always before God and the world the stronger has the right to carry through what he wills. The whole world of nature is a mighty struggle between strength and weakness. An eternal victory of the strong over the weak. There would be nothing but decay in the whole of nature if this were not so.”

The second piece of knowledge was espoused post- Second World War by a Nazi named Hans Fritzsche who, while speaking with Psychiatrist Dr. Leon Goldenshon in Nuremburg prison, stated the following: “What I would like to emanate from the darkness of the tragedy is one spark of life. I mean, the realization that crime does not begin when you murder people. Crime begins with propaganda, even if such propaganda is for a good cause. The moment propaganda turns against another nation or against any human being evil starts.” Fritzsche, was a senior official in the German Ministry of Propaganda, from 1942, but worked in propaganda for over 10 years in the Third Reich.

Fritzsche further elaborated what exactly he meant about propaganda when he stated: “…ten years ago I made the remark that to make propaganda is the first step to hell. Propaganda is always done by bringing the attention of the people to one side and taking the attention from the other side. Thus, propaganda is always one-sided, be it for good or for bad. …I painted only in black and white- no in between colours.” In Fritzsche’s view the most important way to prevent a future war or future evil is to prevent the making and disseminating of propaganda.

At a time when some American and Canadian leaders are exalting and encouraging a “warrior ethos” while simultaneously pumping out one-sided propaganda that does exactly what Fritzsche warned about such as blaming liberals, immigrants, Muslims, and other minorities for the state of the world, we should be deeply concerned.

While it is important to remember those who gave their lives for our freedom, given the threats we face today, moments of silence and the reciting of In Flander’s Field is not enough. At a time when the very freedoms veterans fought for are under attack, Royal Canadian Legions across Canada should be using this Remembrance Day to speak out about this obvious push towards authoritarianism, minority scapegoating, and might-is-right thinking that threatens all of our collective freedoms. Is that not what we fought against during the Second World War? Is it not still worth fighting against?