SHEPHERD BLISS: The Four Horsemen of Industrial Society

[Tace]

The Four Horsemen of Industrial Society: War, Over-Population, Climate Change & Peak Oil

By Shepherd Bliss -- Energy Bulletin

A famous story that has endured through the centuries is recorded in the final pages of the Bible, Revelation 6. It may have relevance to our time and provide images for us to understand our historical reality. I am not totally satisfied with this tale, but it has merit: the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The figures are interpreted variously. Some describe them as War, Pestilence, Famine, and Death.

Given my firm belief in free will and choice, I think that we can influence history, even individually, so I do not subscribe to a deterministic or apocalyptic view. We are not doomed, unless we remain passive and inactive in the face of these threats. Many direct actions are and can be taken to keep the thundering horsemen at bay. Consequently, this article will also indicate efforts occurring at local levels, especially with respect to transforming Peak Oil from a threat into a potential opportunity.

If we take this ancient allegory and apply it to this beginning of the 21st century, what might we see through this old lens? Perhaps we could translate the story to our time as the Four Horsemen of Industrial Society.

War seems to lead the charging Horsemen -- be it tribal, religious, nuclear, or high-tech conventional. The ritual warfare of primitive people -- in which often there were few or even no deaths -- has developed into modern barbaric practices of torture, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and now the real possibility of global annihilation by an intended or accidental nuclear exchange.

more

http://worldnewstrust.org/modules/AMS/article.php?storyid=2158

[Vidar]

1. Clever analysis.

[Clara T]

2. We might call 'industrial society' itself

one of the four horseman of planet earth.