WSJ had an article on how a bank run affected the Amish community (Indiana).
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124640811360577075.html
I guess if anybody emerged unscathed during this long Recession, it would be the Amish people.
After all, they have been staying off the grid, much less finding themselves anywhere near Madoff.
But truth be told. even these “plain” folks have not been bystanders in this globally connected economy.
Believe me or not, while I got myself surrounded with technology (at the time of the Three-Mile-Island incident,
it was Electronic News Gathering) and globalization (the Boat People risking for freedom), I spent some time
pondering about pacifism through the writing of Howard Yoder.
It’s the Amish policy of non-social involvement that both puzzles and fascinates me.
The fact that they can hold out this long throughout the entire industrial revolution, onto the information one is quite remarkable.
I first saw the Amish in Lancaster, PA during one of my memorable Thanksgiving trip at my then college roommate.
Life in the Amish community isn’t anywhere near the freeways of Los Angeles (or congested as Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon) not to mention Hong Kong.
Although my friend’s dinner wasn’t any where near the Amish one, I can imagine the warmth, and richness of simplicity
(in agricultural abundance setting). Maybe they wait it out to leap-frog to 4-G wireless generation to decide on a Palm.
By nature, they are an ethnic-religious group. But by all measures, they are American, just as the Mormons.
I am glad these “white” folks are around, and protected by the Constitution for whatever tenets of faith they held,
whether it’s pacifism, or the book of Mormon was it. At least, the Amish hold high self-respect: they don’t participate in the Social Security safety net, then they are exempted from paying those taxes. Cool! Californians should learn from the Amish, after all, California has a large agricultural base that could sustain its whole population, with much left over for Arnold to replenish himself after his work out at Muscle Beach. Those volleyball girls in Venice sure don’t eat much.
Whatever the case maybe, let’s say CA goes “plain”, then leave Silicon Valley and San Fernando Valley alone (same principle of church vs state) because the former worships TECH, and the later SEX. Both are as much deified as any.
It’s hard to be “plain” in an age of perplexity. Actually, right now, we need both to simplify our lives, and to shop for more. What a paradox!
Thang Nguyen 555 