"the Four Horsemen of Calumny -- Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear...."See in text(Text of Senator Smith's Speech)
The noun “calumny” is synonymous with slander and defamation. The “Four Horsemen of Calumny” alludes to the biblical apocalypse from Revelation 6:1-8, wherein the “four horsemen” of the apocalypse are released into the world, representing conquest, famine, war, and death. This biblical metaphor associates McCarthy’s campaign of “calumny” with the end of the world, or at least the end of the United States. By associating the tactics of McCarthyism with the horsemen of Revelation, Smith accentuates two particular qualities of the Republican reactionaries. McCarthy’s crusade is, on the one hand, immensely powerful and persuasive; after all, there are few forces in human history more intensely manipulable than fear and ignorance. On the other, the crusade is ultimately destructive. As Smith suggests, internal sedition breeds division; division opens the gates of the nation, ushering in the actual enemy.
