Plague. War. Famine. And surely, Death. Recognizable image? Well, meet the faithful companions of mankind – the four horsemen of the Apocalypse. Those guys aren’t going to bring any kinda joy, don’t you think so? If you look on Wikipedia – you’ll be damn amazed at how many different meanings there are to choose from. But none of them are going to make you happy, believe me. Just google it down, and you’ll see the Durer’s woodcut where these four gentlemen are depicted with obvious intentions reflected on their faces. They leave no doubts – nothing good is to expect here.
One more look at search results, and you’ll have to admit that this quartet seems to be very popular for a long, long, even longer than Metallica or Scorpions, period of time. Why? Cause they are scary as shit.
And when you’re scared – you’re very attentive. That’s why this band has got all of the Grammys since the first mentioning ages ago.
And when someone owns your attention – it becomes elementary to monetize it. That’s why all the time when things go good – there are always hell lots of people who wanna shake ’em up.
At the time I’m writing this, we’ve already seen Coronavirus (aka the Plague), the War, and now everyone’s talking about the Famine caused by the blocking of the Ukrainian ports by the Russian troops. Searches for the words “crisis,” “hunger,” and “inflation” are gaining momentum. And people are talking about the upcoming hell here and there. Well, the usual course of things.
Lately, I was in a company talking to one guy I got acquainted with by a friend of mine. It was a standard late-night easy talk in an outdoor cafe sitting on a cliff and looking right to the ocean. The moon was shining bright, and a mild breeze was shaking the palm leaves above our heads. You know, that kind of a night when the best thing to do is to sip kombucha (in my case) or kashasa with rum (in the case of my new companion) while enjoying the chatter with nice chill music in the background.
The guy was a normal American – with lots of humor and a wide sincere smile. Jokes and funny stories poured generously out of his pockets. You know, a really nice kinda guy.
And since I am quite curious about how people from different cultures see things from their perspective, I could not refrain from asking a few provocative questions. Absolutely innocent questions like: “What do you think is gonna happen in the world shortly?” I don’t know, maybe it was the third kashasa that made him squint and start whispering very seriously…
“Everything is going to change,” he said slowly and added excitedly, goggling his eyes: “A new world order is coming!”
I said: “Ok, hmm,” trying to formulate the following sequel question, and thinking: “Ok, I hope there’s something more or less rational behind his saying – like from Ray Dalio, rather than from those guys who are desperately waiting for the end of the world like latter-day saints.”
Well, it went out that it was some kind of a mix. Cause the next thing I heard was the wording you are already familiar with: “Have you heard about the four horsemen of Apocalypse? Yeah? So, man, I’m telling you – this shit is coming! Look, we’ve already seen the plague – which was the coronavirus, right? Then we’ve seen the war, right? And now, now we’re seeing the start of world hunger, huh?! And after this, I assure you, something wild is coming!!” – his eyes were looking somewhere in the dark like this prediction was going to materialize from the bushes behind me.
I truly enjoy these kinds of talks, so I always play along: “Really?” – I asked with my face turned on to maximum interest.
“No doubts, man. No fucking doubts! Empire will fall, and the world will change drastically! All the financial system will crash, and the Chinese will be ruling the bank, so you’d better be prepared, my friend.”
“Like what? Learning Chinese? But how will this help when this fucking Apocalypse comes that you’re talking about?” – I asked, trying to be serious.
He wasn’t hearing me anymore cause the 4th kashasa arrived, and he continued to sprinkle in more scary stuff. In 5 minutes, I decided that there was no way it was a good idea to try changing his mind, so I said I needed to go and left the cafe.
On my way home, as usual after such talks, I was smiling and wondering why the hell people like to talk so much about these conspiracy theories? And, as typical, the answer was lying on the surface – it is very effortless to blame, in your today’s or future failures, some external circumstances beyond your control.
And these daring guys on colorful horses are just a widespread scenario that was, remains, and will be accompanying humanity forever.
The coronavirus (aka the Plague) was just a very advertised epidemic that had flushed away when the media turned their heads to the war in Ukraine. By the way, this is the only thing that Putin has defeated cause nobody is talking about coronavirus nowadays.
The war, despite the opinion that it’s a kinda World War 3, and despite the huge chaos in Ukraine and lots of people that were killed and lost their houses – remains just another local conflict that is always happening somewhere on the planet.
The famine caused by the world’s lack of food is another old story – a perfect story to tell for such bureaucratic instances as a World Food Organization, which is like all doctors that don’t need you to be glowing with health. There can’t be such thing as global hunger only because 1% of the world’s grain is blocked in a port. Even not seeing the fact that 10% of all grain is processed into biofuel and it is very easy to stop doing this shit to feed people. Even despite that, we see that 1% is still not enough to cause the famine. So, the third horseman is also fucked up.
And the fourth one, that is usually called the Death? Well, the answer is simple – we’ll all meet him someday, so why fucking call him in advance?
Facts my friends, only facts and a bit of curiosity that drives you to find ‘em out – only they matter if you want to be well versed in what’s happening and not panic in any circumstances. Even in times of falling Empire. Which I, frankly speaking, don’t see at all.
The strength and the military power are things that really decide by the end of the day. And the US still leaves any rivals far behind in such a competition. And believe me, it may take many, many years before such a balance of power will change.
Yes, empires rise and fall, but you’d better be thinking of your stuff, right? From choosing the right place of living – from which depends hell lots of aspects of your life, – to being highly adaptive in the fast-changing world.
In reality, I really hope that the US will still hold the position of the Empire till the end of my life, cause I have no aspirations to learn Chinese.
Don’t let anybody fool you. Don’t fall for inexpensive bait – don’t give your attention away so cheaply. Don’t worry about things that are out of your control. Just do your business and remember, the more unstable times are for investors, the more valuable cash-producing companies become. Just make your shit well in a calm and confident way, and you’ll always be on a horse (and not those guys, you know) that will take you wherever you want.
Stay safe and tuned to our blog. We’ll update and share more on these topics, and soon, you’ll be aware of how you can drastically improve your business by exploiting the content-based biz dev strategy – practically, easy, and without the need to reinvent the wheel.
And regarding these four horsemen, we were talking about – their coming has been predicted hundreds of times already. This is just a prevalent scenario in human history. And that is just a very profitable narrative.
