This empire is enough to make me believe in their gods! Reading about the rampant intrigues and murders followed by natural disasters and loss of power in the realm...the gods were revolted and punished them. Why not?
This Hittite culture, Dise says, was based on heroic virtues, a king's status was based on how victorious he was at attacking, plundering, and destroying other kingdoms and how much loot he brought back to his people. We still see this of course, in gangs roaming city streets and maybe this explains some wars. It's not megalomania, it's something quite different. I certainly hope that's not what America is doing by engaging in all these wars. We always have some excuse, some reason, some people we're supposedly saving. Sometimes it may be true, but how much is merely to prove how 'manly', how much of a warrior-king our nation is (ignore the fact that we call America "she"!)
It's very difficult to fathom the Hittite kings considering it a good idea to wander around the world (as they knew it) wreaking havoc and totally destroying cities when they really got nothing out of it. Maybe they did and we don't know, as Dise points out. But the Assyrian trade network that had outposts in Hittite cities, didn't that contribute to the wealth and well-being of Hatti? Didn't it bring goods they wouldn't have otherwise had? Was it merely to put all things under their own control that they destroyed the system? Perhaps the Assyrians controlled commerce more than it sounds like in this lecture, perhaps it was like another country controlling our banking system - we don't want it that way quite obviously, though from what has been happening in this country lately, it's farther along than I like.
The Hittites and their warrior-king values remind me of angry toddlers. Have you seen a small child having a fit? They smash and destroy your things, their own things, and anything they find to let out their frustration and to manipulate the adults. It makes them feel powerful for the short time they manage to get away with it. Now what if these angry toddlers were a fully armed army of men? Not even angry, just out to 'prove their manhood'? I understand the concept. When we think that men should use their brawn and brains to create and build, it sounds a bit girly. Women create, men don't need to. That's work and the biggest, smartest, strongest men can have others do the work while they reap the rewards. I wish this was a foreign way of thinking to me but the more I write about it, the more it makes sense. Not that I think it's RIGHT, just that it's perfectly understandable. Wow. The veneer of civilization is thinner than I thought.
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