The 4 horseman of the apocalypse:

A deleted section from "Love in the Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020."

The First Wave seemed like a tsunami at the time but, in fact, was a mere ripple. It was one isolated ripple that spread out, gathered momentum, propagated into larger and larger waves, and then ultimately into the Second Wave that indeed bitch-slapped change into the world, leaving only opportunity in its wake. Those individual ripples were not insignificant, and themselves combined to form the old one-two-jab-jab or bitch-slap-pimp-slap combination that should have been warning enough that the hook or side-kick to the head was to follow. Those ripples that seemed so devastating at the time were merely the unexpectedly well-designed and executed set-up that ushered in the global economic devastation that would bring the world to its knees. The world was almost out for the count but managed to stumble back to its feet. If the world only knew what would follow, perhaps it would have stayed on its knees and begged for mercy. The flow of dollars came to a screeching halt. Rent could not be paid, restaurants, gyms, offices permanently closed. Driving through Times Square or SoHo became an eerie tourist attraction for New Yorkers dumbfounded to witness a ghost town without cars or human beings. The streets of New York City were deserted- a sight to behold! There was no turning back, but pundits did what pundits did best; they spouted opinions that filled the imaginations of whoever cared to listen and provided distractions to that now dirty word opportunity. Their sophistry was ultimately irrelevant, except that it raised questions. For instance, how could a restaurant, business, or individual ever be able to pay their rent for the months they missed? Now that companies had established that having employees work from home was just as efficient as coming into work, why should they pay the exorbitant rent for office space? Would people flock back to emergency departments, clinics, and doctors' offices for minor ailments they now learned to manage at home? The pundits suggested social distancing in restaurants, but the reality is that those restaurants required a certain number of patrons daily to pay their bills and turn a profit. Those healthcare facilities counted on those visits for ridiculous reasons to turn a profit. They were now iterating the preventive health mantra that was conveniently ignored previously to draw the patients back. There was fear. Fear of exposure to Covid-19. Fear of dying alone in an overwhelmed hospital without visitors. Fear of the building concerns over not having an income and being unable to pay one's bills. All of this was compounded by pundits on every screen talking about the global economic crash that would lead to a full-blown societal panic attack over what the future would bring. Sports teams across the country were shut down. Broadway shows closed until further notice. Tourism was dead. Schools in permanent recess at least until the fall. All the typical distractions were removed except for the ubiquitous screens of mobile phones, televisions, and computers. People were left face-to-face with their pets, families, partners, and themselves. The overall mood was angst. The world was in a frying pan on simmer, slowly getting hotter and the discomfort gradually increasing. Each ripple generated more significant ripples. Whenever another wave crashed onto the shores of people's sensory shelter-in-home deprivation tanks, they made adjustments to the new level of discomfort and angst. The two waves forming, Covid-19 and the global economic crisis, were more or less old news in that every day brought the same information. One could count on a certain number of new cases of Covid-19 and the increasing death count. This would then be followed by the never-ending stream of pundits discussing the lack of PPE, test kits, the benefits or folly of social distancing, wearing masks, followed by heaps of attacks and blame. In regards to the economy, the news revolved around the declining stock market, employment rate, businesses closing down, and the increasing hostility between China and the United States. Everything was politicized and polarized from a Left or Right bias. What Henry David Thoreau described as the 'quiet desperation' in which humankind lived was now transformed into a witch's cauldron that was almost at a boiling point. Who could have predicted that there was more to come? If Covid-19 was the First Horseman of the Apocalypse and the global economic crisis the second, then the third horseman was the murder of George Floyd by a police officer on May 25, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. A video emerged of the officer pressing his knee into Mr. Floyd's neck and holding it there despite Mr. Floyd stating that he could not breathe for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. This incident triggered national outrage leading to protests and riots. What motivated such a profound reaction across the country when there were so many other incidents of police brutality over the past years? In many cases, the police stated that there was no wrongdoing, but then a videotape would emerge demonstrating blatant violence and murder. One can only imagine the number of incidents swept under the rug before body cams and everyone having a smartphone. Was this simply the straw that broke the camel's back? More interesting was the fact that by early June, there were protests and riots across the world. These manifestations were triggered by the murder of George Floyd but represented something much more profound. It was an eruption of the angst and anger stored in the collective consciousness and ignited by Covid-19 and the global economic crisis. The tipping point pushed people over the edge because it was another indicator of what was wrong with modern society. Throughout all of this, there was Donald Trump, President of the United States. Even with the 20/20 hindsight, his role was still fuzzy. Even his ascendancy to becoming the POTUS is unclear and so uncanny. On the surface, he will likely be remembered as the worst president in the history of the United States who was an egomaniac, self-aggrandizing liar, racist, and misogynist. As further information is revealed from the numerous investigations, it may even turn out that he was a traitor to the United States and possibly even committed treason. History will most likely place Donald Trump, the 45th President of the United States, in the infamous category of leaders such as Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known simply as Nero. He lived from 27 to 68 CE and was considered to have been the worst emperor of Rome. Nero divorced his first wife, Octavia, and then murdered her, likely to protect his position as emperor. Nero also murdered his mother because she opposed his affair with Poppaea Sabina, whom he later married. He then killed Poppaea while she was pregnant with their second child. Nero is infamous for setting Rome on fire to bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking and then watching Rome burn while playing his fiddle. On a much deeper level, there seemed to have been something else at play. Amidst conspiracy theories bandied about during the First Wave, the most intriguing one also happened to be the one presumably cast as a joke and utterly preposterous. There had always been many questions about how on earth Donald Trump could have been elected POTUS. More perplexing was how he managed to survive and was impervious to every disaster he created. He even seemed to be invigorated by each passing debacle. It just didn't seem in the realm of human possibilities. It was then circulated that the only plausible explanation was that The Donald had made a Faustian pact with the Devil, whose intention was to destroy and enslave humankind. Who knows what The Donald bargained for in return, but then again, no one yet knew what his bargain was with Vladimir Putin. This particular conspiracy theory seemed to be more unbelievable than the rest. Still, the fact was that humankind was witnessing the beginning of the "End of Days," and The Donald appeared to be the Maestro, the grand conductor orchestrating it all. The First Wave was a calamity that affected the entire world, but his response was several standard deviations, orders of magnitude beyond what would be considered customary or reasonable. He generously sprinkled all that crude oil that was sitting unused due to the crisis on the fire of the First Wave. The immediate rebuttal proposed was that the Republican Party aided and abetted him and his followers across the country encouraged him. This was true, but he had been prepping them from the start. Their response to the crisis might have been different if it had occurred before their being so devastatingly brainwashed. By the time of the crisis, they were all marching in lockstep to the flute of the Pied Piper Donald Trump. Under the protection of the Devil, there was absolutely nothing that he could do to dissuade his followers. He himself almost gave it away when he stated that he could shoot someone in broad daylight on Fifth Avenue and not lose votes. Except for the divine intervention of the Devil, how could anyone explain how he moved from controversy to controversy unscathed. The Devil himself must have been exhausted by his shenanigans. The Donald seemed to usher in each of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse with fanfare and accentuating their effectiveness. Each Horseman of the Apocalypse owed a tremendous debt to President Donald Trump. Would the First Wave, the First Horseman of the Apocalypse, have been so devastating had it not been for his intervention? After witnessing what had happened in New York, would Florida, Arizona, Texas, and other states under his spell have been so devastated by Covid were it not for The Donald starting the fire and feeding the flames? Would countries such as Brazil have suffered such devastation were it not for their leader, Jair Bolsonaro, attempting to imitate Donald Trump to also wrangle himself a deal with Devil? The Second Horseman — global economic crisis, was in the making for quite some time. President Donald Trump's seemingly disparate and unrelated actions- deregulation, trade wars, isolationism, diminishing the world's regard for the United States- were all little pieces that lit the flare to signal his arrival. The naysayers will protest that this conspiracy requires too much imagination. The response is that The Donald's entire presidency has demanded too much imagination to be accepted for reality. Remember that The Donald did not write the screenplay for the "End of Days," but instead was simply charged by the Devil to direct it, to bring in the players precisely at the right time to utter their lines with the appropriate intensity. The Third Horseman of the Apocalypse was the murder of George Floyd. But why now? There was a litany of prior incarnations of George Floyd in recent years that provoked outrage and then dissolved into the status quo. Similarly, there must have been a litany of Martin Luther King's and Gandhi's who never went viral. Their messages did not crest in synchrony with the ears and hearts of the masses. The crests and troughs of history are indeed a function of fate, just as some notes played randomly by a group of monkeys will intermittently land in the same key and sound like music. Rather than leaving it all to chance, the Devil himself secured Donald Trump as the conductor to orchestrate the players, the intensity and timing of their notes to produce a symphony that leads to an inevitable outcome- the "End of Days." The isolated riffs of the First Wave of Covid-19, the global economic crisis, and the murder of George Floyd were certainly devastating in and of themselves. Still, when brought together at the right time and intensity, they created ripples on ripples making ever-increasing waves. Spiral dynamics. The Donald wielded his baton over the grandest orchestra on the world stage. The intense harmonics created light that allowed the world to witness what was clear to some with at least one eye partially open: Climate change, worldwide social and racial injustice, gaps in wealth distribution, humankind's slow march deeper and deeper into economic slavery.

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The author was born in Haiti and has lived in New York City for the past 54 years. He is a practicing emergency physician who has dedicated his life to the healing arts and the exploration of Consciousness and creativity. On Amazon, he self-published his second novel "Love in the Time of Coronavirus: 20/20 in 2020". His first novel was "The Twin Flames, the Master, and the Game," & is also available on Amazon. He & his wife are presently on a world-travel adventure that he is writing about in his blog "Travels with Ale." For exciting & thought-provoking content, & to be part of the adventure, follow him here, on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/richardlanoix/) & Facebook (@RichardLanoixAuthor· Author). His other blog posts related to Consciousness can be found at medium.com/lanoixvisions.