"The four riders on white, red, black, and pale horses symbolizing pestilence, war, famine, and death, respectively." Rev. 6:2–8.
In the book of Revelations in the Bible, the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalype namely
a) pestilience
b) war
c) famine
d) death
would signal the end of time. As we enter bravely into the 3rd millennium after the birth of Jesus Christ (AD 2020), the 4 Horsemen look more and more like 4 fictional characters from the latest Pikachu or Cosplay movie.
War
With the multipolar world, the world has mitigated the threat of war. Yes, there are numerous countries with nuclear capability, however, that scenario in itself is a no-win game. If we go down that path, it is Mutually Assured Destruction. The probability of this happening is quite low, I would assume.
Wars are still fought on regional and sectoral levels. However, the art of diplomacy has replaced the threat war. The winner takes all the riches as in the Game of Thrones or in the past is no longer relevant nowadays. Wars are namely fought mainly for independence of the unique peoples and not to gain riches of the enemy as in the past.
Famine
The world is facing an obesity and diseases related to obesity are much more than compared to famine. Thanks to the efforts of many courageous NGOs and the United Nations, there are more people dying from obesity and high blood pressure than from starvation. That is a fact now.
Pestilence
The advancement of medicine and the swiftness of the frontline doctors and scientists in finding cures, for diseases such as the SARS, bird 'flu and others gives me confidence that another pandemic on the scale of the Black Death in Europe and parts of Asia is highly unlikely to occur.
Thanks to almost 200 years of genuine advances in medicine and science, most of these diseases caused by virues and bacteria are well under control.
SUBNOTE : Today is 27th March 2020. The world is in the throes of a Global Pandemic called Covid 19. I admit I was too optimistic in saying that Pestilence is well under control. So, given time perhaps by the end of the year, we will have the vaccine. By that time, the world as we know it will have changed totally in the way people meet, entertain and communicate.
So I am wrong on this count !
Death
Everyone succumbs to death. However, as the world is becoming more automated and the convergence of human and bioengineering. DNA and Genome sequencing are will become very mainstream as a result, we will have super or Alpha humans who will be living much longer and healthier lives. People who are born today in developed societies with the advancement of medicine, proper nutrition and exercise, can expect to live well past 100 years of age.
Japan is one such rapidly aging society.
The 4 Horsemen ? Well, its time they rode off into the sunset just all those comic characters whose time and relevance have gone.
They wont be missed. Really.
14th March 2020 Addendum - Pestilience
I was wrong on this count ; we are now in the midst of a global Pandemic called the Covid 19. While the mortality rate of this as a percentage of the infected remains low (about 2 - 3 %), the rate of transmission and the scale of escalation of this Coronavirus is unprecendeted in modern times.
At the time of writing, there are over 140,000 cases and mortality globally of 3.2% of the infected. There are close to 80,000 who have recovered fully and this is indeed an encouraging sign.
The only thing to fear is fear itself and we must keep calm, wash our hands often, don't touch our faces, practice common sense and social distancing to keep our mental spirits up and wait for a vaccine which will surely come sooner rather than later.
Israel's Government Migal Galilee Research Institute is about to begin production of a coronavirus vaccine for the COVID 19, although the general population will only get one probably in 6 months earliest.
So, we had better learn to live with the risk of infection and stay as healthy and strong both physically and mentally possible.
Carpe Diem !!
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