Four Horsemen – Reflection Paper

Derivatives (7481)
Muhammad Ahmed (21783)
 Notes
We are entering the age of consequence.
4 Horsemen: War, Conquest, Famine, Death (influenced by: Empire, Banking, Terrorism, Resources).
Systems are corrupted and changed to benefit the few. By not controlling the money, but the cognitive map (mind).
The Internet is changing the government, finance, and media.

Empires:
All powers destroy themselves in order to achieve the impossible.
Lifecycle of empires (250 years -10 generations)
 Pioneers
 Conquest
 Commerce
 Affluence
 Intellect
 Decadence (display of wealth, obsession with sex, gap in rich and poor)
o billions spent on sports and celebrity chefs to distract.
o Baby Boomer generation has done worst misallocation of resources.
o Immoral economy, poverty. (Create money but not for greed)

Banking:
Few people in power create a system for themselves that glorifies them and benefits them.
Commercial banks create money from nothing (which should be illegal) and lend it at interest.
 They make people believe that inflation occurs because their wage demands are too high.
 1971: FIAT: Only government has the power to issue money, and bank has the power to create it. People in
power get it early. They start spending it which creates inflation. It is a pyramid, till the time the poor get money,
inflation has already occurred, and they cannot afford stuff. Poor is forced to take debt to afford what they could
afford earlier. This cycle widens the gap.
 Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value of zero, because of excessive supply.
Communism failed that made capitalism seem right, however both are failing at different rates.
They make it seem that Human beings that sit at top don’t need to be regulated.
1932: Separate normal banking with investment banking.
 Clinton removed this legislation, which allowed gambling from depositors’ money.
Neo-Classical Economics: Govt should rule the economy and leave the Free Market on allocation of resources and
financialize the economy.
When these corporates fail, the government bails them out from tax-payer money. (Not good democracy, its oligarchy)
(Socialism for the rich.)
Loans – charge more from minorities (on racial basis)
Picking regulators from the banking industry allows them to make laws that can benefit them. Its kind of a parasite.
Democracy: Rule of People.
Plutocracy: Rule of Rich
CDS: They know their systems are rotten and will fail, so they bet against their systems so they can earn.
Free Market should be about not only benefitting yourself but also create something that helps the society; however, the
latter is never achieved.
Trickle down economics: The money on top will eventually find its way down. (However, when it does, it has already lost
its purchasing power.)
Terrorism:
Make lies seem truthful and make the death respectable.
Huge military operations are not necessary, they cause refugees.
The benefit is received by militaries.
The reconstruction after the destruction: Aid is given so it can be spent on their companies for reconstruction. They act
as consultants and charge huge money, while the people there don’t receive much.
This doesn’t boost economy as it doesn’t boost trade. It makes the poor poorer and creates hate and forces them to join
terror groups.
What if 5m kids died in Africa, we don’t face any consequences. We get our bonuses.
The terrorists don’t want to be terrorists, they want to be their families. The are forced to follow radicals when their
livelihood is destroyed.
Terrorists claim themselves to be freedom fighters.
Entire planet should be our homeland.
Injustice is exported through finance (debt and banking systems), which doesn’t solve the root causes of terrorism.

Resources:
Man-made capital has been growing at a faster rate than population. Natural resources have been depleted.
People are chasing materialism and fight for it in order to achieve happiness and satisfaction.
Focus has been on individualism than communal growth. No support or cooperation.
The growth economy promotes consumerism to replace spiritual needs.
 Eventually, the Meds and anti-depressant sales sky-rocketed.
Human product is losing. Individual achievements without incorporating vulnerable community are causing
loneliness.

Progress:
Schooling shouldn’t interfere with education.
All of these are systematic problem. People feel helplessness as they do not understand the problem.
The education system and media doesn’t teach us to question these issues.
The dawn of internet has been limiting the ignorance.
Still learn everything: Know your enemy.
We cannot change entire society but can change ourselves.
The monetary system requires change.
 Only gold is outside govt control.
 Debt isn’t helping, it is form of modern slavery.
Tax on what we consume rather than what we produce.
 Natural Resources are available without any effort, they should be taxed. Rather than implying income taxes.
The ratio of highest earner in a company to the lowest payer:
Plato: 6:1
JP Morgan: 20:1
Reality: 1000:1
 Reflection Paper
Introduction:
The documentary symbolizes the Four Horsemen “War, Conquest, Famine, & Death” as the different challenging aspects
of the world that have been racing towards us, just as the horsemen race towards an enemy in a war in order to destroy
it.

War:
The world has been moving towards armed conflicts over the last century. These wars are being initiated in order to
protect the Empire of West, which has already entered its age of decadence. Although these wars are not necessary; yet,
they are promoted as they benefit the ones ruling over militaries, arms manufacturers, & construction companies.
However, who would pay for these costs? The tax-payer money (largely contributed by poor) is used as aid by
governments to funds these large-scale military operations; this aid ends up reaching these aforementioned companies,
and hence the ones ruling over them. One might think that the taxpayers will retaliate over their funds being utilized for
mass-killing, but the sad reality is that the Media and Education systems are used to glorify these wars and make them
respectable. The prime example of this the War on Terror initiated by US in early 21 st century and the mass-murder of
Muslim population in the Middle East. These wars haven’t reduced terrorism over the last 2 decades, it has only
promoted it as more and more groups come out and claim themselves to be freedom fighters. Makes one wonder that
whether these wars have been just for monetary benefit, or have an implicit racial reason behind them.

Conquest:
The conquest of rich continuously to empower themselves without thinking of the consequences of their decisions has
been never ending. Over the last century, they have spread the propaganda using Media and Education systems
regarding how individualism and consumerism helps the society grow. This helps their large corporations: Consumerism
helps their firms grow in monetary terms, while individualism in the society empowers these rich as the poor ends up
becoming a slave. One of the methods used to promote this modern slavery is the Banking System. The Banking System
is allowed to create money (which is generally illegal for other professions); this is done through lending the debts over
interest. The borrower becomes the slave when they are unable to repay. Why are they unable to repay? The interest
from debts reaches the bankers who sit on top of pyramid, who spend it to cause inflation. While that recreated money
reaches the bottom of the pyramid, the inflation has already reduced their purchasing power, which makes them unable
to repay the debt; as a remedy, they are offered more debt on higher rates. This cycle continues and turns the ones on
lower side of pyramid into corporate slaves. This banking system has been promoted in many different forms, which
appear to be insurance industry and Islamic banking industry. Although the legal form of these alternatives is different,
but in substance they all seem to produce similar outcomes.

Famine:
The ruling class has control over corporations through Market Economy, and eventually have control over the resources.
These resources are misallocated in a way that allows this class to grow monetarily, while depleting the resources for the
general community. The man-made resources have been growing at a higher rate than population, while the natural
resources are declining at an alarming rate. However, even this man-made capital is concentrated amongst the few in the
world.

Death:
The attempts to save the dying empire, the slavery through banking system, the war on terrorism, and the plundering of
resources have all been contributing towards the death of poor. Globally, no system currently is moving towards
sustainability, which has also started to pose a question over whether the killing is specific to just the current generation,
or is it being expanded towards the future generations as well.

Conclusion:
Each point suggests that the few ruling over the top have been creating these four horsemen using assistance of Media
and Education system. This Oligarchy can only be broken if the one continues to educate through their systems (to know
his enemy), while also continues to study on his own (to understand the hidden truth).