Totalitarianism is evil, not just Communism

The current debate surrounding the Memorial to the Victims of Communism in Ottawa is important. Communist regimes have caused a great deal of death, misery and psychological dysfunction in the 20th century. The Black Book of Communism is not a work of fiction. However, I would like to point out that, as much as they suffered under the communist regime, even the Russian people did not erect a monument to the victims of communism — they erected what our guide called a “Monument to the Victims of Totalitarianism” (The Solovetsky Stone outside the Lubyanka).

Opposing a political theory like communism seems to miss a point — Hitler was an anticommunist and communists were among the first residents of Dachau. History has not been kind to Senator Eugene McCarthy, another anti-communist fanatic.

The point is that Vladimir Lenin, Josef Stalin, Pol Pot and Adolf Hitler were totalitarians capable of hijacking any philosophy that would initially gain the support of the masses. Communism does have great appeal to an already oppressed people, a handy property well suited to any budding dictator’s tool box.

Although there are hopeful signs of former dictators being hauled up in world court and denounced as the mass murderers they are, the “job wanted” and “job vacancy” signs are still up around the world when it comes to totalitarian entrepreneurs.

The bell curve of passion may well exhibit apathy at one end and fanaticism at the other. Let’s not allow the totalitarians and the would-be dictators to hide behind philosophies and religions to ply their trade. Let’s memorialize the victims, but let’s focus on what truly victimized them.

Let’s create a monument to the victims of extremism, fundamentalism, or (my preference) totalitarianism. Barry Bruce, Carp, first president of The Diefenbunker, Canada’s Cold War Museum