Amish: The kindhearted people

http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/open-page/the-kindhearted-people/article4986069.ece

by bugsbunny4341 • 13 years ago

20 10 13 years ago

darxius• 13 years ago

Interesting story, but I don't see what it has to do with HN topics.

If the author's goal was to make a parallel between using less technology and being mature and peaceful, I would have to disagree. The Amish are an interesting people, but thinking that their way of living should be the norm is a romantic response to how society uses technology in the wrong ways. I firmly believe that we can only grow by increasing the technology we use across all walks of life (education, resource management, communication, labour, etc.)

sgarman• 13 years ago

I think the real goal with this kind of question is should we be more critical in how we adopt new technologies. Should we think about both positive and negatives effects on culture and society. Right now we essentially have a culture that grabs on to anything new as soon as possible and then deal with the consequences when they arrive. I think this argument is especially potent with the HN crew.

tzs• 13 years ago

The Amish do adopt technology--they are just careful about it. They want to understand the social aspects first, so they can figure out how to adopt the good aspects of new technology while avoiding the bad aspects.

See Kevin Kelly's article "Amish Hackers" [1] for an interesting look at the Amish and their approach to technology.

[1] http://www.kk.org/thetechnium/archives/2009/02/amish_hackers...

baddox• 13 years ago

David Friedman, a prominent libertarian/anarcho-capitalist theorist (and son of economist Milton Friedman), has a similar but deeper article about the Amish, wherein he interprets their legal system as essentially an anarchy where laws, despite being extremely constraining, are produced and enforced non-violently.

http://daviddfriedman.blogspot.com/2011/10/are-amish-anarchi...

keithg• 13 years ago

Except for Floyd Landis who was a cheater and liar. He followed that up by being manipulative and engaging in blackmail. And finished by being vengeful, greedy, and vindictive as he used all of those wonderful character traits to become the catalyst who took down Lance Armstrong and all of the recent generation of USA Cycling.

susi222• 13 years ago

Floyd is from Lancester PA but he is not Amish. He is Mennonite.

gaadd332• 13 years ago

It's Landis' fault that Armstrong doped? Or its his fault that he got caught and thereby exposed all the cheaters?

susi222• 13 years ago

He was prepared to molest them but an alarm was raised and it upset him. He shot the girls spraying bullets that killed seven of them on the spot, while the eighth died in hospital.

That's not quite true. He killed 5 and injured another 5. The molesting part is only speculation, though he did bring a tube of lube with him.

Noting that the village and the school where the killing took place had become a visitors’ attraction, the Amish elders had the building razed to ground overnight

That's also not true. It was demolished 11 days later by diggers.

gaadd332• 13 years ago

Crime is non-existent in these villages.

There's a pretty sizable number of Amish caught dealing drugs in Lancaster County. Although I think that's either decreased in recent years or it isn't the novelty that it was initially and there's no real media coverage of it anymore.

Lazare• 13 years ago

Not sure what this has to do with HN. Also, it's probably worth noting the other side of the communities obsessions with "forgiveness": http://legalaffairs.org/issues/January-February-2005/feature...

Amish: The kindhearted people

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