The only exposure I have with how Amish work is from Newport’s Digital Mininalism book, and it sounded pretty reasonable. (Don’t know how correct it is, though)
The way he put it, they don’t outright ban and refuse all technology. Every time a new tech comes out, they have a few people give it a try and then decide as a community if/how to best use it without sacrificing their core values.
For example - a telephone? We don’t want that, because then it would break the sense of community if you could just call anyone, without having to call on them/meet then for dinner, etc. But, we’ll have one phone in a village in casr we need to call for outside help in an emergency.
Assuming that’s true, I would suspect that especially in regards to medicine, they would be pretty open. But yeah, I guess it absolutely depends on the community, and how cultish/reasonable are the people making these calls.
What they allow is entirely the whim of the local Bishop. Some are super conservative. Others not so. I’ve seen Amish people on e-bikes, while others don’t allow rubber tires on their buggies. Then whenever a new Bishop rotates in, a new toss-up in the rules. One common theme is that they hoard shit tons of money.
Yeah, I kind of assumed that would probably be the case, and while this kind of reasonable approach to technology, that was highlighted in the book, sounds pretty nice in theory, it does put a lot of power into few hands, which historically (and unfortunately) never works very well.
They aren’t open to medicine. Also most adult men have cell phones and hide them.
Every Individual in their community I’ve met has been super nice, but it’s still a cult and they still do fucked up shit.
EDIT: looked it up instead of going off my experience alone. They aren’t categorically anti-medicine as part of their beliefs, but generally don’t go to doctors unless it’s dire.
Some individuals being hypocrites doesn’t invalidate their way of life. I admittedly don’t know much about them but I remember watching a documentary where the teen members of the community explore the outside world.
One girl comments on the public school education system that the students were focused on passing exams and not on actually learning anything. Always stuck with me.
I would be hesitant to call them a cult, since there seems to be a diverse range of communities and practices. Maga is a cult.
The only exposure I have with how Amish work is from Newport’s Digital Mininalism book, and it sounded pretty reasonable. (Don’t know how correct it is, though)
The way he put it, they don’t outright ban and refuse all technology. Every time a new tech comes out, they have a few people give it a try and then decide as a community if/how to best use it without sacrificing their core values.
For example - a telephone? We don’t want that, because then it would break the sense of community if you could just call anyone, without having to call on them/meet then for dinner, etc. But, we’ll have one phone in a village in casr we need to call for outside help in an emergency.
Assuming that’s true, I would suspect that especially in regards to medicine, they would be pretty open. But yeah, I guess it absolutely depends on the community, and how cultish/reasonable are the people making these calls.
What they allow is entirely the whim of the local Bishop. Some are super conservative. Others not so. I’ve seen Amish people on e-bikes, while others don’t allow rubber tires on their buggies. Then whenever a new Bishop rotates in, a new toss-up in the rules. One common theme is that they hoard shit tons of money.
Yeah, I kind of assumed that would probably be the case, and while this kind of reasonable approach to technology, that was highlighted in the book, sounds pretty nice in theory, it does put a lot of power into few hands, which historically (and unfortunately) never works very well.
They aren’t open to medicine. Also most adult men have cell phones and hide them.
Every Individual in their community I’ve met has been super nice, but it’s still a cult and they still do fucked up shit.
EDIT: looked it up instead of going off my experience alone. They aren’t categorically anti-medicine as part of their beliefs, but generally don’t go to doctors unless it’s dire.
Some individuals being hypocrites doesn’t invalidate their way of life. I admittedly don’t know much about them but I remember watching a documentary where the teen members of the community explore the outside world.
One girl comments on the public school education system that the students were focused on passing exams and not on actually learning anything. Always stuck with me.
I would be hesitant to call them a cult, since there seems to be a diverse range of communities and practices. Maga is a cult.