this post was submitted on 05 Oct 2024
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The Amish around where I live (Midwest) run a bunch of great little stores (which is most of the contact I have with them personally, but my partners mom has friends in their community who come to visit now and then.) The stores all take credit cards and have refrigerators for the cheeses/dairy, and many of them do use machinery for farm work. Some even use cell phones.
I haven’t noticed any jewelry (haven’t paid attention), but they really do seem to pick and choose which portions to adhere strongly to.
My understanding is the faith has exclusions to the rules for when its necessary for work, so an Amish IT Administrator wouldn't be impossible!
It mainly depends on if it makes them money or not.
That does, honestly, seem to be the threshold for the communities around me.
Can they use it in a way they can argue complied with their religion? If yes, and money, do thing. If yes, no money, do thing. If no, but money, try harder to argue, then do thing.
If no and no money, leave the community.
Yeah the more I've found out and paid attention over the past few decades. I think the Amish how they were originally envisioned, died out many many years ago.
The current ilk, use that perception to make money and at best give lip service to the original ideals.
I figure in 50 years Amish will be indistinguishable from any other modern religion.
I mean even now they are just another niche religious community.. I get what they were going for, but..
Their communities have a lot of problems. Like a lot. And because they mostly have that year of going into the world (intended as a culture shock, but really is just an introduction to modern convenience technology, which is mmmmm so enticing) their numbers are dwindling. And that sucks for the culture loss, but I doubt they will even exist in 50 years, honestly.
Or say they do exist in 50 years.. they will be the people buying all the cheap shit that doesn’t meet emission regulations because they “have to weigh each new innovation”.
For as long as I’ve lived in close proximity to Amish communities (most of my life, again Midwest), they have always made weird questionable allowances that I don’t really understand because I’m not part of the community. Most of them get around their religious limitation by just hiring someone, that’s why they need money. I know this because my family was hired on multiple occasions (because we often did poultry trades and other livestock deals with them) to operate machinery (chainsaws, modern farm equipment, etc) on their behalf.
And doesn’t that just seem like modernizing with more steps?
Also inbreeding is a huge issue, I know back in the nineties there was a big deal about the large communities (Midwest, PA, NC?) intermarrying to try and help the issues