Dear Editor,
I’ve been taking an informal course of study of long-gone civilizations via YouTube University. Today, I watched a linguist tell of the language of the Hittite culture, once a thriving empire, centred around what is now Turkey. Little was known about this culture, except through references in the Bible. King David became enamoured of Lady Bathsheba, but she was married to Uriah the Hittite, as I recall from the movie starring Yul Brynner.
Until this morning, that’s about all I knew about this once powerful civilization, which dominated much of the Middle East, rivalling the early Egyptian cultures. Recent excavations have unearthed ancient cities, and remnant tablets inscribed with multiple scripts, some of which were known, so that the lost language and history of the Hittites can now be interpreted. It’s like a glimpse back in time into the lives of people who probably thought they were the latet thing. They were right – at that time.
Why did that culture cease to dominate, and fall into the ruins of fractured memory? One might say, “Who cares?” Well, I care, because that is the fate of cultures, to emerge, sustain, and then fade away, for various reasons.
Our present North American culture will eventually dissolve into obscurity, as did the Mound Builder culture which thrived in the Americas before the European invasion. One of the reasons civilizations have faded in the past is an excess of hierarchical dictatorship, failing to enlist and maintain cultural diversity. “So what?” you may ask.
Right here and now, governments are paying hypocritical lip service to diversity while demolishing it in reality. An obvious example is the state of affairs in the United States, where people of one ethnic group have decided they should own and run everything, disregarding the hopes and dreams of everybody else. Too much power/wealth concentrated in the hands of a few hyper-egotists is a surefire civilization killer. The noble experiment in social democracy is in danger of imploding at the hands of techno-billionaire bullies.
The government of Quebec is intent upon standardizing every aspect our lives through mandatory over-regulation. Local governments are being disenfranchised, power/wealth is being centred at the MRC, in lock-step fealty to the latest random decrees from Quebec City. As it has been said, “They want everyone to be on the same page.” The problem is, it’s the wrong book, and they’re holding it upside down. Those who resist will suffer persecution, those who roll over will face the ridicule of history. Just you wait and see. This material will be on the final exam.
Robert Wills, Shawville and Thorne
