9/17/2014
The Four Horsemen: Are we the real problem?
After spending most of the week reading Zizek and learning about his Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (Ecology, Economy, Biology, and Society), it was a relief to hear a new opinion on such a large part of the end-all-be-all. Burroughs writes that the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are Death, Famine, Plague, and War, but his most interesting decision was to use the metaphor of the Horsemen actually being human beings. Like we have read in other pieces, this implies that we as humans, once again, are going to the be cause of the end of the world as we know it. Burroughs allows the reader to come the realization that the Apocalypse isn't going to occur in a split second, like how the tall tales say it will. Rather, he implies that humans are at fault. Humans made Famine. Humans made War. Humans made Plague. Humans lead to death. So often do we attribute these powerful entities to the acts of a God, but in reality, our actions have led to these Four Horsemen. Our breakthroughs in science, a topic that I am so very interested in, could lead to our downfall. The disparity and difference in amount of food people in different parts of this world could lead to our downfall. Our selfish decisions to attack another country over differing opinions could lead to our downfall. Burroughs' ideas have a common understanding with Diaz and Zizek. While they all are different thinkers, some being more radical than another, they all believe that the end of the world can be attributed to the actions of humans, and their information to back up the claim is hard to reject.
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This was a well-written post! I like how you pick up on Burroughs' metaphor of humans taking on the role of the Four Horsemen. You are correct in saying that humans could destroy the world over a long period of time rather than a split second. In the future, I think food scarcity will be a big issue so we'll have to see if humans can unite in an effort to feed the world before we all starve. I think this also begs the question of whether humans will use nuclear weapons to destroy other countries in order to maintain possession of food. I liked this post a lot and I look forward to reading more of your writing in the future!
ReplyDeleteThere are definitely correlations between Zizek, Diaz, and Burroughs writing. As you mentioned, they all say that humans are, or will be, the basic reason for an apocalypse or any catastrophe that happens around the world. (Funny, because when I think about disasters happening around the world, I don't include the US as a possible destination for destruction, whether by an attack of sorts or natural disaster, because, just as Zizek claimed in his writing "Welcome to the Desert of the Real," we are all living in this bubble which makes us think that the US is indestructible).
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