The Four Horsemen of Apocal-ism

Contemporary societies, especially Western ones, are suffering the symptoms of their gradual destruction. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse that herald the end of an era are populism, nativism, isolationism and protectionism. Each one of them feeds and augments the rest, consuming little by little the pillars that support society.

The strength of democratic societies has resided in the promise of progress based on rigor and inclusion, principles and rules applied and applicable to all, and in the idea of openness and welcoming. However, the last decade has seen an intensification of messages that promise to do away with those principles. The arrival of Donald Trump on the U.S. political scene gave rise to the legitimization of anti-establishment movements that, with greater or lesser intensity, had been excluded from the political system since 1945. This is due to the gigantic cultural influence that radiates from the U.S. to the world and which makes everything that happens in the North American country resonate in all corners of the planet. The “America First”, the break with political correctness, polarization or the return to hard borders and tariffs mark the path towards the destruction of democracies.

Populism is a political strategy based on the idea that there are two types of members in society. The first are the “pure”, those who are part of the people and who embody all the virtues, including honesty, hard work, good deeds and kindness. On the other hand, there is the “elite”, which, depending on the ideology, will select one particular group or another, but all agree that it is an inherently corrupt group, which has a plan and that plan is to screw the people. In the case of populist right-wing movements, that group is the globalist elite (sometimes it is the UN, sometimes it is the EU or other supranational entities), the progre/woke elite, immigrants, pro-human rights or environmental NGOs, etc. The ultimate goal of the populist is to fight that corrupt elite by any means at his disposal.

Donald Trump in front of a sign that reads, “Buy American - Hire American.”

Nativism is the movement that advocates creating a caste-like system in India, where one's birthplace and culture should translate into greater rights than others. “First the locals first” seeks to create a system of rewards and punishments based on provenance. Granting benefits, legal or health coverage only to people who meet certain elements, such as a particular religion, skin color, culture or language. The Brexit represented this movement very accurately, where one of the main motives of people who voted for this option in 2016 was to control borders to restrict the access of refugees and migrants to the United Kingdom.

Isolationism is often a derivative of nativism, but in relation to the outside world. Isolationism, characteristic of most dictatorships, seeks to build walls with neighbors. Its proponents advocate a vision of national sovereignty that implies disinterest in global problems; only those occurring within their borders and to their nationals are relevant to them. Examples of isolationist countries are North Korea or the USA under the presidency of Andrew Jackson (a reference model for Donald Trump). The characteristic behavior is to limit formal and informal diplomatic and economic relations to the indispensable minimum, and this gives rise to the fourth horseman.

Protectionism is the application of the above to the economic and commercial sphere. Under the premise of favoring the development of domestic industry, it seeks to erect tariff walls to foreign products. Sacrificing in most cases the competitive advantage of opting for the best product on the market, it is decided to try to promote the production of the same product by national companies. This measure may bear fruit in the short and medium term, improving national employment data, but if it is not possible to compete in quality with foreign companies, it ends up being a fatal measure. An example of this is the case of the connection of the railway network between Spain and the rest of Europe. Due to the protectionist measure adopted in the 19th century to establish a gauge different from the European standard, overland trade with other countries has historically been very limited.

When the Four Horsemen ride together and are strong enough, the fate of societies is sealed. The result is societies that are more closed, resentful, hostile, inflexible and unable to cope with future problems. What made democratic societies strong was the capacity to integrate, not to expel; to expand, not to close; to dialogue, not to impose; and, in short, to convince, not to conquer.