The Fourth Horseman
The Fourth Horseman
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a theme worthy of dramatic treatment in the creative arts, has come under inspection from other quarters as well. Most of those concerned have agreed upon the identity of the first three - Famine, War and Pestilence. The fourth horseman remains somewhat of an enigma. In our own time, an attempt was made by ex-President Herbert Hoover to delineate the character of the fourth as Revolution, a fitting name that would be in accord with the first three; but then, why a fourth? Three would have done just as handsomely, if not more so, as the principle of three is a universally accepted symbol. Furthermore, in establishing direction for an idea, the third point eradicates doubt, the fourth is superfluous. So, if we accept four horsemen, we must look elsewhere for the character of the elusive horseman. Let us look at the first three: Famine, War, Pestilence - surely these are the inevitable diseases of human society. So too is Revolution, but then we could just as well add all the vices of which humans are capable, for, after all, without society no vice could exist as such. There is Death, considered by many to be the all-encompassing character uniting the first three and embracing all that is left. This I feel to be redundant. No, I can?t help being led into an entirely different direction. I propose the following:
Famine, War and Pestilence are for the most part threats from without. It is their collective strength which gives them their awful aspect. The individual is involved, certainly, but the threat remains for the most part an objective one before which the entire race stands helpless. This poses the idea that in opposition to these objective perils there is a subjective one as well - a personal one. Is it possible to contemplate an evil that hovers within, the expression of which depends simply upon the lack of intensity of the personal will to live? I think so. You might call it a death instinct if you so choose; certainly it is related to the pressures of society in much the same way as are Famine, War and Pestilence.
This then is the name of the Fourth Horseman - Self-annihilation!