During WW1, young men looked to propaganda and peers for answers. Paul Bãumer was no exception, he knew that what he was doing what wrong at heart, but he still followed the herd into battle. With visions of glory and victory he marched straight into hell expecting nothing but good to come from it. He received a shock at his first engagement, war without chivalry, what a dreadful thing. Paul soon realized the horrible decision he had made to get himself in this predicament.
If Herbert Benally were in Paul's class, I'm sure he would be singing a different tune about the choices these boys made. Benally is a peace loving man who believes that taking care of yourself, your family and your community comes first. He developed a circle diagram that will help people achieve harmony with their self. Benally would have protested this war, mostly for the fact that the war destroyed nature (he was very in touch with nature in a spiritual way). Benally would have over-powered Kantorek's rhetoric with his ideas for rest and contentment with self and nature. Most people do not want to go to war for someone else unless they totally understand what they are fighting for. Most people at this time were just going to war because it was the "right- thing to do, to hop on the band wagon, which brings me to my next philosopher.
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Friedrich Nietzsche, a Prussian philosopher said it best "Mighty waters draw much stone and rubble along with them; mighty spirits many stupid and bewildered heads- (Qtd. in Curry). He was saying that most people see everyone else doing it (a stream); they tend to join, oblivious to their own rational thought on the matter. Nietzsche would call the people in this class a mindless flock, he definitely would not agree with Kantorek's enthusiasm towards sending people to the frontline. If they wanted to go, they should make the decision to go without influence.
Karl Jaspers would believe that these people lacked Existenz (a level of being true to your self) because you cannot find your true self when you are having orders barked at you all day.
