Rough Draft-Amish and thier view on technology

Amish and their view on technology
There are many different types of cultures in the world and they all have their unique lifestyle. Monogamy is the lifestyle of having only one spouse at a time while Polygamy they are allowed to have more than one spouse at a given time. Native Americans liked to live in teepees while the white settlers preferred to live in houses. Some may see these lifestyles to be the wrong way to live, but their religion and culture say otherwise. The Amish are a main culture that is looked at to be living in a wrong or unique way because their view on technology. The Amish decide to live their life without the help of most technologies. According to Jamie Sharp, author in The Amish: Technology Practice and Technological Change, Amish don’t have hatred towards technology as most people presume; they simply choose not to incorporate it into their culture. An Amish leader stated, “There is only one way to remain different from the world and that is to be separate” (Kraybill and Olshan 6). There are many aspects as to why the Amish live the way they do and some of their cultural ways are being introduced and used in today society.
To understand why the Amish choose not to use technology in their everyday life, we must look at their background of religion. Amish base their life on the do’s and don’ts around the Ordnung, a religious harness that guides the community in the paths of faithfulness (Kraybill and Olshan 5). The do’s are called prescriptive which include wearing traditional dress and use a horse and carriage, while the don’ts are called proscriptives which include do not drive a car or attend high school (5). These are rules that the Amish live by and they are just like any of the rules that we are known to live by such as Catholics can’t eat meat in Fridays during lent, it’s not written down anywhere just known throughout the culture. In 1978, an Amish community wrote down some Ordnung rules the Amish follow and they are as following:
· Farm with horses and not with power machinery in the field
· No rubber tires on implements and buggies
· No unnecessary lights on buggies except for when used for safety
· No bulk tanks or milkers
· No one shall operate cars or trucks
· No electrical generators except for welding. No lightning rod
· No sinks or colored tubs in the bathroom
· The young people shall not run after pleasure places, have a radio or TV, or watch movies. No wrist watches, bicycles, no drinking or tobacco (Sharp).
The Ordnung is used to keep members separated from the world and Amish leaders fear that a shift in that direction will undermine the integrity and identity of the church (6). Such as the bible states in Romans 12:2 “Be not conformed to this world” (6).
The Amish also follow the movement of Anabaptist which is a belief that a person should not be baptized until they are ready to enter a life of faith, repentance, obedience and discipline, the opposite of the Roman Catholic Church which baptize as an infant (Sharp). Anabaptist stated that all daily activities should revolve around the teaching of Jesus Christ leaving them out of participation with any sort of violence (Meyers and Nolt 25). Anabaptists were not liked around religious leaders and political authorities and were sometimes jailed and harassed (25). Back in the day, if a group of people did not believe in the same things or acted the same way as the majority of the people they were punished. This has happened throughout history starting with the Native Americans when they were either forced to become “civilized” like the rest of the group or keep to their culture and beliefs and pay the consequences. How is it right for a group of people to be punished for what they believe in? The Amish are another example of people who focus their beliefs on the bible and the minority again comes up short.
The telephone is a common technology used throughout the 21st century. Now days, I bet it would be hard to find a teenager who doesn’t have a cell phone. This is how people communicate throughout their day and it can be said that people would be lost with out it. Amish families did have telephones in their homes, made by homemade lines yet in 1910; church leaders had banned telephone use (Kraybill and Nolt 127). Church leaders thought the telephone was a threat because religiously they believed separation from the outside world and the telephone was the direct link (127). The Amish main form of communication is face to face and body language is an important necessity in a society of oral communication and the telephone got in the way (127). The telephone does make life easier to communicate with people and I know that I wouldn’t be patient enough to send a letter and wait for a response. The Amish knew the benefits of the telephone, but because of beliefs of connection with the larger world, secret conversations with gossip and behavior not addressed if communicated face to face, they choose to live with out it (Kraybill and Olshan 104).
When I think of the Amish people, two things come to my mind is they ride a horse and carriage and how do they live with out electricity? Electricity is one of the main technologies used throughout the world. Everything is run on electricity. In 1919, the church banned 110-volt electricity from public power lines but not electricity from batteries (Kraybill and Nolt 137). Yet in the 1960’s stationary diesel engines were becoming popular to operate milk refrigeration units and to power a variety of machines. Without the use of 110-volt electricity it was hard to operate so, in stead the Amish turned to hydraulic and pneumatic power (137). They would strip off electric motors in shop equipment and use oil or air driven motors (137). Today enterprises use the “Amish Technology” of oil and air driven motors instead of tapping into public utility lines (138). more and more of the Amish way of life are making an impact in today’s society.
Another impact the Amish are making in today’s society is people are starting to eat organically. The Organic Dictionary states that organic foods are those that are grown without artificial help, such as no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, meat must come from animals without benefit of antibiotics and foods should be free of chemical additives for color, flavor or preservation (11). Organic foods are becoming more and more popular. Just the phrase “going green” is becoming more popular in grocery stores with bags, eliminating the paper and plastic bags and with TV shows teaching people how to eat and clean organically. Organic farms continue to grow today to keep up with the demands of the people (49).
When looking at the Amish lifestyle there are things that are controversial and questioned. For example when an Amish family has a business and the sign on the door says “come in, we’re open” that is welcoming in the outside world and their religion is all about being separate from the outside world (Kraybill and Nolt 163). With that there is also a struggle with advertising without offending the church. Some feel that advertising pays off while others feel a simple sign on the side of the road and word of mouth is the best advertising (164). In fact large enterprises boasting annual sales of a million dollars, claim they use only a simple sign along the road. They reveal an Amish skepticism towards glitzy promotion and worldly fanfare (165). The Amish have such an impact on our daily lives that most people aren’t aware of it. The Amish prove that the simpler things to operate and maneuver tend to work the best than high-tech technology.