Not being a religious person, some stuff does actually get into my head now and then, and the part about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse is one of those things. The rider on the pale horse, if I have my memory straight, is Death. Okay, stay with me on this because now that we have established that I’m not a Biblical scholar, it’s just a very interesting phrasing. Our world, probably from the beginning of time, has been in turmoil for one reason or another. Sometimes it was the earth itself, blowing off a mountain top, like in Hawaii, or perhaps a freezing time and the cleansing that pretty much went with it…at any rate, our planet is not a static object. There’s always “something” going on.
I wouldn’t try to fool you into thinking that the world’s problems can be solved easily, because they can’t. Solutions will be found, however, and they may not be what “we” or “they” wanted, but that’s how it works. Here, in the United States, we are facing a problem that may never have existed before, or if it did it wasn’t of the magnitude of today. We are a nation that is rapidly reaching the point where discussion may not be the order of the day. The idea of compromise has been killed off and it’s an irresistible object facing an immovable force…and nothing good will come from that, believe me. Being a world-class skeptic means that “the other side” has some ulterior motive behind everything that they do.
The muddled Middle East has been that way for centuries, and will continue to be that way unless, and until, it either completely modernizes and accepts Israel as a neighbor, or is plowed under (so to speak) by the sheer weight of its own stubbornness and, yes, stupidity. Sooner or later, by either friendly or not people, that situation will be solved. Common sense, which ALL politicians seem to have a lack of, should tell “them” that the world is changing and they either change with it or, like the dinosaurs, they will disappear. Many of the not-yet combatants have nuclear weapons that will decimate the world.
Closer to home, there is Europe, which is rapidly becoming Eurabia.
It does seem that they are committing suicide with their actions. The huge problems brought about by first “importing” cheap labor (they thought), and then followed by the massive influx of illegals and “refugees”, did nothing good for them. The majority of “refugees” (which they aren’t) do not work, but they collect all sorts of welfare benefits and are, eventually, going to bleed the host country dry. Islam, which I consider to be a cancer on the body of the world, encourages multiple “marriages” and large families, all on the government’s dole. That “plan” will end up with a Muslim majority in the host country…and that’s the end of that country.
The pale horse and the rider have visited both the old world and the new. It was the plague for Europe and influenza for the Americas. If “natural” disasters weren’t enough, mass murderers like Stalin, Hitler, Castro, Nicolae Ceaușescu and many others brought their own brand of hell on earth…and the world survived them…but it’s getting more difficult to dispense with ugliness like that. When all the antagonists are equally armed how can you predict an outcome? There are probably enough nuclear weapons all over the world that, if war started, there would be universal extinction. Everything has a “shelf life”, that is, it’s good for such-and-such a time, and then it’s no good. How long can nuclear weapons be stored?
Reading a lot, things stick with me. The pale horse and its rider, the almost unbelievable numbers of different things that America made for us and others in World War Two, and sometimes it’s what a person says and not what they do, that gets a reaction. Lately there’s been a lot being said about the halving of America. Oh yes, we’ve become two different countries almost, because the thinking is SO at loggerheads with each other. One side is, I believe, dedicated to the destruction of the United States, while the other side is trying to keep the ship of State afloat and on the proper course. Lincoln said something about that when he remarked that a house divided cannot stand. America has been, and should continue to be, a place where dreams can come true.
Why would anyone who believes that America is a bad place, want to stay here? There are probably hundreds of thousands of young people in America that have been told, and they believe, that our country is “bad”. We have oppressed people, we’ve made slaves of people, we’ve waged wars against people that have done us no harm…yes, that’s some of the stuff they’re getting in school. It starts, believe it or not, in kindergarten and goes all the way through college. Wake up, America…don’t let the sun set on this noble experiment.
Parting shot: People much smarter than me have said some really good things…here’s a couple of them. “America was not built on fear. America was built on courage, on imagination and an unbeatable determination to do the job at hand.” (Harry S Truman); or this…”The patriot volunteer, fighting for country and his rights, makes the most reliable soldier on earth.” (“Stonewall” Jackson)
Image: Excerpted from: Gustave Doré – A 20th century Swedish bible, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=23366303
