The end is near and has been for a long time. That's the thing about the end; it's a long time coming. We know it's coming, but the end is always just around the bend of time.
Until now. Now the end really is near. Nigh. The end is nigh.
And a good thing too for all the Apocalyptics, Mayan New-Agers and Mckennian time-wave theorists.
Not a moment too soon as they say.
And how can we tell the end really is near this time?
Four horses galloping.
The White Horse:
I watched as the Lamb opened the first of the seven seals. Then I heard one of the four living creatures say in a voice like thunder, "Come and see!" I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
EMPIRE: The American Empire, built atop the British Empire in alliance with the European Empire is the greatest Civilization the world has known. It has built a standard of living called, First World, unparalleled in history. So much is available to so many. (People are rightfully concerned about 50 million Americans living in poverty, but that's out of 315 million, that's only like 16% of the people living in poverty. Back in ancient Egypt it was like 14 inbred cone-heads dressed as dogs and a hundred million slaves carrying rocks to the top of a pyramid. David P. Forsythe wrote: "The fact remained that at the beginning of the nineteenth century an estimated three-quarters of all people alive were trapped in bondage against their will either in some form of slavery or serfdom.")
Empire requires fuel. The literal fuel of energy, the industry of human labor and the unquenchable fuel of trade. The life-blood of empire is expansion. Empire is the epitome of 'shop until you drop.'
Until now the world has been big enough for two global civilizations – Western/Eastern, Occidental/Oriental, European/Asian. The world has been big enough for both. Until now. We're competing globally for the same finite resources, trading in the same markets for the same dollar of profit. If meaningful cooperation is not reached then conflict is inevitable. What Huntington called The Clash of Civilizations.
The Red Horse:
When the Lamb opened the second seal, I heard the second living creature say, "Come and see!" Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other. To him was given a large sword.
The Mars' red God of War is killing humanity all in the name of Ignorance. We ignore the truth – a human by any other name, creed, ethnicity, tradition is still a human.
War is omniscient. We are way beyond “wars and rumors of war”. War IS. And it's spreading. Precisely at the moment humanity should evolve past war and leave the institution of war behind as a relic of the early human “brute” we instead embark upon a new world war of incalculable calamity. Humans claimed humanity for themselves before actually achieving it. There is nothing more inhumane than war. Nothing. And yet, even now, when we can clearly envision a dark future of smoke and bone, humans try to find every excuse in the book to keep on warring. The biggest excuse is: He started it. It's self-defense. The Other. The Enemy. Them. Coming for our women and freedom.
Forget the thing about turning the cheek seventy times seven times.
At the height of civilization humans have never sunk so low. America's business is business and the biggest business is war. All the reasons we're given for war by our “leaders” are lies. It's nothing but propaganda to sell war. It's a business. And it's PR Dept. is the Mainstream Media: America is under attack and we've got to fight back. We were attacked on 911 and we're fighting the same enemy now that we fought then: Terrorists.
Funny how the enemy is always just some folks resisting colonialism.
The Black Horse:
When the Lamb opened the third seal, I heard the third living creature say, "Come and see!" I looked, and there before me was a black horse! Its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand. Then I heard what sounded like a voice among the four living creatures, saying, "A quart of wheat for a day's wages, and three quarts of barley for a day's wages, and do not damage the oil and the wine!"
They call the Black Horse Famine. But not famine for all, famine for the poor. The Black Horse is not Famine, but Class War. The price for the wheat and barley is not because they are scarce but because a day's wages is not enough to purchase them. A rich man does not have a day's wages. A rich man man does not care about the price of bread. And the admonition to spare the wine and oil, the delight of rich men, shows the Black Horse is meant to Divide the few from the many so humanity can easily see its own ignorance, hypocrisy and tragic inhumanity to itself. The statistics are there for all to see. The rich are richer, the middle is smaller and the poor are poorer. The United States is among the worst in the world for economic injustice, and yet to discuss it is to declare class war. In America we're all free to become as rich as we want. It's an inalienable right. And yet, the rich are dynasties, the same few at the top for ages, while the rest of us dog-eat-dog our way to jobs, careers and lives to eek out existence above the poverty level of losers.
The biggest war in the world right now is the war of the rich against the poor. And by poor I mean you. National sovereignties have been sold to private bankers who loot the peoples of the world. The rich are allowed to spend billions of their excess cash to fund the fascist of their choice while we give $20 to the same candidate and wonder why no one listens to us.
The Pale Horse:
When the Lamb opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth living creature say, "Come and see!" I looked and there before me was a pale horse! Its rider was named Death, and Hades was following close behind him. They were given power over a fourth of the earth to kill by sword, famine, and plague, and by the wild beasts of the earth.
His name was death. And he was followed by Hell. The Zombie Apocalypse. Given power over a quarter of the earth to kill, kill, kill. Well, we've seen the plagues, the famine and endless war. Now what?
The BP crime spill and the ongoing atomic nightmare at Fukushima show our fragility. Our food is contaminated and controlled by mega-corporations who feed us like cattle, fattened for the slaughter. Organic gardens are a crime. Our natural fresh, clean water sources are dwindling. We drink bottled water now, which is tap water industrial filtered by mega-corporations to make it safe for consumption, at a price. Who the hell knows what we breathe these days?
How come we're so sick as a society? Our industry has given us cancers. Our stress has given us Prozac Nation. Our diet has given obesity, diabetes and heart attacks. Our 'Freedom' has given us a nation of gun-junkie religious cultists one cross-eyed glance away from mass murder. What happens if they all go off their meds at once?
The end is near. It really is. It's close. It's just not right now. But it's coming. It's nigh. Maybe it's the Mayan Calender or the Army of the 12 Monkeys or gigantic carnivores from Antares.
It's not a fairytale. There is no happy ending. And the laws of drama demand a climax.
We're just a moment away from apocalypse now.
One very long moment.
