How many times have human beings crawled out of the wreckage of a human-caused disaster and solemnly vowed, “Never again”?
And how many times have we gone right ahead and added many “agains” to the “never”?
In the United States, the Civil War left more than 620,000 dead. Some estimates go even higher. Afterward, the country said, “Never again.” But soon, the South embraced a different chant: “The South shall rise again.” And it did not through armies, but through Jim Crow laws, voter suppression, lynchings, redlining, and mass incarceration. Slavery was abolished in name, but the machinery of oppression was rebuilt almost overnight—rebranded and legally sanctioned.
In Europe, the First World War killed more than 20 million people. “The war to end all wars,” they called it. But less than a generation later, the world plunged into an even greater catastrophe. World War II killed over 70 million, turned cities to ash, and gave us the Holocaust: the industrialized murder of six million Jews, and millions more Roma, disabled, LGBTQ, and political dissidents.
Germany said, “Never again.” And for a while, it meant it. But now far-right parties—Nazis in all but name—are gaining traction again. Books are being banned. History is being softened. Truth is being blurred.
And in America? We defeated fascism abroad, but now we flirt with it at home. Politicians openly praise dictators, attack democratic institutions, and try to overturn elections. Right-wing militias march in the streets. Swastikas appear at rallies.
Then there’s gun violence.
After Columbine, we said “Never again.” After Sandy Hook, we screamed it. After Parkland. After Uvalde. After Las Vegas. After Buffalo. After Pulse. After Tree of Life. After thousands of lives lost and families destroyed.
But “never again” in America means again, and again, and again.
There have been over 4,200 mass shootings in the U.S. just since 2013, according to the Gun Violence Archive. That’s more than one per day.
We keep quoting the old line, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it,” but it’s painfully evident that humanity is in a state of constant amnesia.
Excellent though tragic analysis.