I suspect the Amish attitude toward animals is the one most Americans held until recently, that animals were placed on the earth by God to benefit Man. They don’t have souls and are a lower form of life. Many of my Catholic farmer relatives hold essentially that view, though many like their dogs and cats too much to abuse them. Running puppy mills is entirely consistent with this belief. It seems cruel to most of us, but to the Amish they are just dumb animals and making use of them is entirely proper and in accordance with God’s plan.
The Amish are not especially admirable, just picturesque. Some live austere lives and eschew all modern technology. Others tie their logic into knots so they can use batteries and tractors or even live quite comfortably with computers and televisions.
What they pretty much all have in common is extreme sexism and homophobia. Women are there to serve the menfolk and provide them with children. Gay people are treated even worse. Most of them leave and never look back.
@MarkM
Very informative and enlightening. How that relates to transmissions, I couldn’t guess…but I don’t have a negative attitude toward people who treat animals with respect and don’t abuse them but use them for their benefit. How they treat other people poorly is a different matter. I have nothing positive to say about them with that in mind.
I’ve read some interesting articles about how local laws sometimes require some Amish communities to use lighting on their horse carriages at night, and how LED technology has made it easier for them to comply with these laws since LEDs don’t drain batteries as fast as incandescent bulbs. Also, many Amish communities make allowances for members of their communities to use technology if they hold jobs that require it, like office jobs, for example.
As to whether this particular lifestyle is admirable, I admire their commitment to their values. Unlike most religious Americans, they are truly dedicated to their beliefs, because their lives revolve around their faith. It’s not something they just phone in on Sunday mornings.
As for judging the merit of their values, I like to keep a good distance between myself and any fundamentalist religion.
I come from Mennonite roots, although we’ve been “living English” since my Grandad moved to Pittsburgh in search of work and converted to Lutheranism in the '20s. My issue with the Mennonite/Amish belief system isn’t technology-oriented…I disagree with the “non-confrontation” philosophy. The thinking of “our reward is in Heaven–don’t get involved in eartly squabbles” disvalues the Gift that life in this world is. When human lives are trampled and repressed, I think it is the moral thing to “Get up, stand up.” (And not necessarily in a violent way: MLK preached non-violence, but he was confrontational as all get-out.)
“As for judging the merit of their values, I like to keep a good distance between myself and any fundamentalist religion”
+1
While the Amish are certainly much less toxic toward “non-believers” than other fundamentalist groups, the fact remains that all fundamentalist groups are firmly convinced that everyone else in the world is wrong, and they are the only ones who worship “correctly”. Those who believe differently than each of these fundamentalist groups will “burn in hell for an eternity”, which–apparently–means that hell must be extremely overcrowded by now…
The Fundamentalist belief that they are the only ones who could possibly be correct in their religious principles is what leads to things like Islamic terrorists, and even to groups like the Westboro Baptist church that practices the despicable habit of picketing the funerals of US servicemen while holding hate-filled signs.
And, every time I hear people say that they want The US to be governed on the basis of religious principles, I remind them that they could go to Iran if they desire that philosophy of government. Of course, the folks who say that they want The US to be governed on the basis of religious principles actually mean that they want our country to be run on the basis of the principles of their own religion!
Just as I like to keep my politics in the middle of the spectrum as much as possible, I like to keep my religious views out of extreme territory as well.