Risk and Extortion LXXXVI: The Four Riders of the Apocalypse

(Revelation 6:1-8)

In the book of Revelations (Apocalypse), four riders are described as heralds of the end of the world as we know it. They can be used as tools to dissect the current catastrophic global condition.

White Horse – Its rider is often interpreted as Pestilence. He carries a bow and is given a crown, symbolizing victory or the spreading of power. After a succession of viral epidemics of hitherto unknown viruses (HIV, Ebola, SARS, Covid19) as well as the decline in efficiency of antibiotics over the last 50 years, it has become clear that “despite” immense progress in medical technoscience, we are still confronted with deadly diseases that can cause great havoc and instability.   However, we must qualify this “despite”, because there is a good case to be made for a different preposition “because”. The idea that emergent viruses arrive out of the blue, has to be criticized. There is sufficient evidence to suggest that the ecological impact of imperial capitalism (e.g. the global circulation of goods, services and human beings, and urbanization), the bio-industry and agrocapitalism (e.g. deforestation, soil erosion, reduction of habitats, monocultures, animal exploitation), and the intersections between medical technoscience and the military industrial complex are all likely contributors to newly emergent pathogens as well as the decline of antibiotic efficacy. The latter is of extreme relevance to any dialectical conception of “risk society as “manufactured uncertainty” and “organized irresponsibility”.

Red Horse – Its rider represents War. He wields a great sword and has the power to take peace from the earth, causing people to fight and kill one another. Whereas it is perhaps hyperbolic to suggest that there are more wars now than ever before, it is equally unwise not to address the growing number of hot spots of militarization across the globe. If we add to this, that the capacity to destroy the world multiple times over is rapidly increasing, and the fact that the budgets for military spending are increasing even faster, then there is no good reason to ignore this sign of the times as apocalyptic. However, we do not need to limit ourselves to traditional notions of war. In Pure War, Paul Virilio explains that war has to be understood not as an exception, but as a structural condition of the modern world. He argues that the condition of pure war means that everything can become mobilization for the expansion of the war apparatus. The White Horse has already revealed one of them: malignant pathogens, but we must extend this to many other domains: information, entertainment (especially cinematic technology, simulation technology and gaming), education, security, identity politics such as nationalism and racism (e.g. paramilitary organizations, ethnic cleansing), the provision of  food and water (e.g. the organization of genocide) and of course the world of finance (as the arms industry is the most profitable sector at the moment). Again, we need to understand risk society dialectically: Risk and Insecurity are necessary conditions for practices of securitization. This is why there is no difference between defence and offence (keeping the peace through the threat and deployment of violence) and this is why politics, economics, labour, ideology and technology are constitutive of the military capacity (matter, energy, information) of collectives. 

Black Horse – Its rider signifies Famine. He carries a pair of scales, indicating scarcity and economic hardship. A voice mentions the prices of wheat and barley, showing how basic food becomes expensive. Ecological catastrophes such as climate change and the dramatic decline of biodiversity are already in full swing. There are already serious concerns over structural shortages of food and (sufficiently fresh) water. As with the previous two riders, these are not accidental occurrences, but entangled with imperial, militarized capitalism, including its self- short-term destructive practices of self-preservation, but also with malignant, perhaps even narcissistic greed that feeds not merely the care-less needs and wants of a comfortable life, but also a sadistic desire to impose suffering upon others. The latter, expressing the ugly face of “the human-inhuman” is cultivated within forms of collectivization such as those of ethno-nationalism, which subordinate life to self-preservation. A prime example of this is patriarchy, which is organized on the basis of exclusive ownership and objectification – one could call it the Nation State – and turn life into the standing-reserves of capitalism and the war apparatus. Whereas the Risk Society Thesis is very adept to identifying the irrationality of rationality as a paradox, it requires a dialectical turn that historically anchors the integrated metabolic processing of matter, energy and information. 

Pale Horse – Its rider is named Death, and Hades follows him. He is given authority to kill a fourth of the earth’s population with sword, famine, plague, and wild beasts. The fourth category unites the previous three (plagues, wars, famine) and adds a fourth: wild beasts. Whereas the decline of biodiversity makes it very unlikely that wild beasts will offer a threat of apocalyptic proportions, the Book of Revelations is often cross-referenced with the Book of Daniel. In the latter, there is a frequent reference to arrival of the Beast at the end of times. For some courageous biblical scholars, the characteristics of this Beast can all be attributed to Donald J. Trump. In this book, we do not want to go this deep into biblical exegesis but focus on that which the Beast – as a summary of the three others – might stand for. What unites emergent pathogen virulence, pure wars and ecological catastrophes? It is a triad of Capitalism, Imperialism and Patriarchy but not as abstract forces, but as concrete, embodied, predatory power. These are the “wealthiest few”, who do not work to live a life of luxury and comfort, but can mobilize and wield the libidinal energy, sycophantic cowardice and psychotic desperation of others to accumulate wealth, power and adoration. One might call it organized crime, except that most of these criminal acts have already been “legalized” by default, through the imposition of a State of Exception.