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  • From: "Tradingpost" <tradingpost@gilanet.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Livingontheland] Plain Technology
  • Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 00:03:25 -0600


Plain Technology
By Ed Tenner July 2005
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/07/issue/megascope.asp?trk=nl


Of all of America's religious communities, few seem less likely to
thrive in the 21st century than the Old Order Amish. They are forbidden
not only to drive tractors and automobiles but also to install
electrical wiring in their homes and businesses. Yet their numbers are
doubling every 20 years, and there are 1,600 Amish-owned businesses in
Lancaster County, PA, alone, according to Donald Kraybill, author of
The Riddle of Amish Culture and coauthor of Amish Enterprise. He notes
that more than 90 percent of Amish youth accept baptism and its
obligations.


As Kraybill and others have shown, the Amish are so resilient in part
because their society tempers discipline with flexibility. Within the
decentralized leadership, each bishop allows experimentation before
deciding whether an innovation will be sanctioned by the community's
Ordnung--its oral body of customs and rules. For example, the bishops
have generally permitted the use of electrical inverters in Amish shops
so they can operate standard 110-volt AC machines like cash registers
and typewriters with 12-volt batteries. The Amish receive modern
medical care and encourage scientific study of their genetic diseases.
Many of their famous black buggies are made of fiberglass. And some
unbaptized youths experiment with automobiles and computers for a few
years of rumspringa (running around) before they decide whether to join
the church.

But although the Amish make certain technological concessions, their
way of life, of course, imposes limits, which stem from their core
value: Gelassenheit, which means yielding to God's will as manifested
in the community's leadership. This principle informs their view of
formal education: in an effort to reduce pride and competitiveness, the
Amish do not educate children past the eighth grade.

Self-imposed limitations promote a basic, but valuable, form of
innovation. Amish metalworkers have been at the forefront of a revival
of horse-drawn agriculture in the United States; the number of horses
on U.S. farms increased by 20 percent between 1997 and 2002. Amish
shops are leading suppliers of innovative implements--for example, a
horse-drawn plow with an external wheel that charges a hydraulic
cylinder, which lets a farmer raise and lower the plow with little
effort. (Models sold to non-Amish farmers may use rubber tires,
forbidden in Amish agriculture.) Amish inventions are of special
interest in developing countries, where draft-animal farming is still
common.

Amish bishops set limits on the size of companies, so Amish shops tend
to have 10 or fewer employees, who are generally Amish themselves.
Labor relations are usually excellent, based on teamwork and shared
values. When an Amish business grows beyond the prescribed size, the
bishops often make the owner sell it, but this can be to the owner''s
advantage. He is spared the pains of the middle-sized company that
needs professional managers and heavy outside financing. His workers
learn a few technologies thoroughly. And Amish profits are often
reinvested as low-cost loans within the community.

The ban on connecting to the power grid fosters great ingenuity in
hydraulic and compressed-air technology, resulting in devices that are
often more energy efficient than conventional electric motors. Since
stationary diesel engines are permitted, Amish mechanics also gain
valuable experience adapting off-the-shelf machinery to run on
diesel-powered hydraulic pumps, air compressors, and battery chargers.
Power outages have become more frequent in North America but leave
Amish farms and businesses largely undisturbed: the freezing rain that
shut down the electrical grid in Quebec in winter 1998 had little
effect on the Amish farmers who had established themselves in
neighboring northern New York state.

The Amish do not all think alike. Many Amish farmers are enthusiastic
users of pesticides, herbicides, and genetically modified seeds, which
they regard as the God-given means of sustaining their farms and
communities. Other Amish (Kraybill estimates 10 to 15 percent) are
allied with the Green movement; the Yale University environmental
historian Steven Stoll applauds organic Amish farmer David Kline, whose
way of life Stoll calls postmodern: "traditional without being
nostalgic, practical without nodding to technology."

Amish life might not be utopian, but it remains one of America's oldest
and most robust technological experiments, with something to teach the
rest of us. When all else fails, try a little Gelassenheit.






  • [Livingontheland] Plain Technology, Tradingpost, 06/16/2005

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