The Daily Signal - Victor Davis Hanson: The ‘4 Horsemen of the Western Civilization Apocalypse’ Have Arrived

Episode Date: September 11, 2025

Europe, the United States, and other like-minded Western countries are facing four “self-inflicted wounds.” These “Four Horsemen of the Western Civilization Apocalypse” didn’t arrive overnight. At the turn of the 20th century, Western elites thought that they could create "heaven on Earth” by moving away from fossil fuels, allowing open borders, and embracing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Results? Skyrocketing fuel costs, which have in turn destroyed the “ viability of the middle classes that are now in revolt,” millions of unassimilated Islamic refugees, plummeting fertility rates, and the beginnings of tribalism, argues Victor Davis Hanson on today’s edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words.” 👉Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new piece of content drops: https://www.youtube.com/dailysignal?sub_confirmation=1  👉If you can’t get enough of Victor Davis Hanson from The Daily Signal, subscribe to his official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@victordavishanson7273  👉He’s also the host of “The Victor Davis Hanson Show,” available wherever you prefer to watch or listen. Links to the show and exclusive content are available on his website: https://victorhanson.com  The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories, like this one, without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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We'd love to talk, business. Europe is in a turmoil. The government of France fell in the sense that the Prime Minister was just relieved. In most of Eastern Europe, in Italy, in the Netherlands. There's political unrest in Ireland, in Britain. What's going on? The same thing is happening here. I would call it the four horsemen of the Western civilizational apocalypse. In other words, Europe, the United States, and kindred Western countries are facing four self-inflicted wounds. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hansen for the Daily Signal. Europe is in a turmoil. The government of France fell in the sense that the Prime Minister was just relieved.

There's alternative governments from the mainstream socialist European model in most of Eastern Europe, in Italy, in the Netherlands. There's political unrest in Ireland, in Britain. What's going on? The same thing is happening here. I would call it the four horsemen of the Western Civilizational Apocalypse. In other words, Europe and the United States and kindred Western countries are facing four self-inflicted wounds. The first is what I would call green madness. That is, an elite in all of these Western countries felt that they were at the end of history.

They were going to create heaven on earth. And they started to dismantle nuclear power, oil-generated power, coal power. and in substitution subsidized very inefficient and unreliable solar and wind. They stopped producing oil, natural gas, and the result of this is that their electricity and fuel costs skyrocketed, making them uncompetitive and destroying the viability of the middle classes that are now unrevolved. In the case of Germany, it's a former shell of itself. It was once the powerhouse of Europe. up its energy costs are three to four times those of the United States.

A second horseman of this apocalypse or borders, remember German Chancellor Merkel said that, yes, we can. We can let in a million people from the Middle East. But in Britain, in France, in the Netherlands, in Italy, in Greece, and in Germany, the influx of millions of people from the Middle East, poor, often without language facility, coming illegally, without legal sanction, without skills, without capital, and with ideas and values that are antithetical to the Western Enlightenment are not assimilating, they're not acculturating, they're not integrating at a sufficient pace to avoid social turmoil.

The host has not been able or unwilling to acculturate them into European values. The result is the populations of these countries are almost 15 to 16 percent Islamic refugees that are not part of the body politic. And there is social tension. It's unsustainable as far as the entitlement cost to these host countries, and it doesn't bode well. So we have to restore borders in the West, so to speak. There's another problem, maybe even graver, and that's, I would call it demographic suicide.

The fertility rate is only 1.4 in Europe, and it's not much better here in the United States, 1.6. We have adopted a lifestyle that suggests that there's nothing unique or it should not be privileged. The two-parent household with two to three children, that was the basis of Western civilization, and it was necessary for a 2.1 fertility rate to reproduce the culture. But when you're down to 1.4 or 1.6, the population is shrinking and ossifying and aging. And there's not enough young people to support the older people and their retirement. So a pension crisis is looming in all these countries. And the result of it is they must, for sufficient labor needs,

open their borders and bring in people often with contrary values to their own, who, as I said earlier, do not assimilate. But if these countries in the West do not reproduce themselves, then history suggests they're doomed. There's a final one, and that is diversity, equity, inclusion. This is the idea that particular peoples who identify tribally should be given exemption or preferences from the body, In other words, in the United States, if you claim you're not white, and that's a very problematic manner. That's why I said claim because of the rise of intermarriage and multiracialism. But nevertheless, it's a very archaic idea that you identify by your superficial appearance

rather than the content of your character. But when you start to provide exemptions from people or give them preferences and admissions and hiring and retention and tenure or you suggest that people of a particular superficial appearance shall be given exemptions from law the consequences of crime or the consequences of failing to meet expectations of schools then you've created whether you like it or not the beginnings of tribalism and tribalism is inconsistent with the Western Enlightenment as we see in Europe and as we see in the United States I'd like to finish by saying these can be corrected.

These four horsemen of the Western apocalypse can be driven out because they were self-inflicted in suicidal fashion. All we have to say is we're going to go back to a common-sense policy about energy. We're going to secure our borders and have legal-only immigration. We're going to encourage two parent families, nuclear families, to have two children or three children. and we're going to start to assess people not by their superficial appearance, but as individual. Thank you very much. This is Victor Davis-Hansson for The Daily Signal.

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