Taking in from the perspective of a student who knows very little of the Amish community, my impression on the Amish lifestyle is similar to that of a cult. Even though citizens of the Amish community wouldn't think of anything negative of their lifestyle, I'm curious if anyone has ever questioned their authority's logic? With a schooling system that treats everyone as equals, with no room for creativity or imagination, it appears to those who live outside the community that the Amish are bred to benefit the community.
This discussion reminded me a lot of this book I was assigned to read in high school called "1984" by George Orwell. The book is about a man who decides that he does not like the organized system that he is forced to exist in created by the government. Once he attempts to break the system, the government breaks him with fear to return to his original state of contributing to the community. The book influenced other books and movies as well, such as "V for Vendetta," of the government in control of people's lives and using them as workers.
We discussed in class the chances of Amish teens successfully branching out into modern society and there were comments stating that many end up returning back to the Amish lifestyle. There were theories that they prefer the lifestyle but my theory is that they panicked due to the lack of knowledge they have of, say, an urban setting. It's like the teens are set out to fail and the adults make sure of it by not preparing them. It's not necessarily that the teens want to go back, but probably more as they feel safe. They don't know how to enter the world where intelligence determines your status in society since they were all treated equal with limited knowledge that probably the other adults only knew. So basically, their education is a continuous process of limiting knowledge with no opportunity to expand. It's like a test to see how faithful the young adults are to the community, like a communion of entering the Amish community for life.
That's my initial thought if the Amish community. We may agree that they are comfortable to live that way, but I'm not entirely convinced. It may seem they accept their lifestyle but I view it as they are forced to. They aren't notified of the lifestyle that they could possibly have that we take for granted. If they provided a better educational system, I wouldn't be as judgmental.
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3 comments:
Shawn, I think its taking it a little far to say that the Amish society is like a cult. It's just different from ours. And who is to say that our society isn't like a giant cult, that we haven't been brain-washed to think that way we do?
I also don't think that the parents are trying to sabotage their children. Why would they need to teach their children about the outside world, when English society is not a part of theirs. Not to mention, the parents probably aren't authorities of English societies, so any information that they would give to their children would most likely be false or based in stereotypes.
You said that the Amish are bred to benefit their community, which is true. But so are we. The fact that we are attending a university highlights that fact. Our parents and teachers taught us ethics and society rules so that we would grow into contributing (or at the very least functioning, not harmful) members of society. The Amish are raised the same way we are, only the ethics and rules of society are different.
I think that we see their education as inferior only because our society dictates that education is extremely important. But do the Amish really need a higher education? The sons need to get out of school so that they can help on the fields (and the daughters around the house). To us it seems medieval that children should neglect their education for farm/housework, but that is what the Amish society is based on.
I guess what it comes down to is that the Amish way of living is significantly different from ours. More importantly, their values are different. Obviously the Amish think school is important, so not providing "a better education" (or a different education would probably be the better way to phrase it) is a choice they, as a group, made in order to preserve what was truly important, which is their way of life.
I think that the argument Amish society is a cult is largely based on perspective of the situation. Yeah sure, from the vantage point of our 21st century, technologically-evolved society, a lifestyle resembling that of 200 years ago seems ludicrous.
But from the Amish perspective, wouldn't they be able to say the same thing? Their way of life has worked for them, and once upon a time it worked for us too. The only difference is that the world outside the Amish community is propelled by a constant need for improvement and change, take education just as an example. The Amish probably look at our government reforms, our experimental testing techniques, and punctuated literary crises and think, "Are you nuts?" The reason being, simply, their perspective. Why try to fix something if it isn't broken? Why try to change education if it continues to consistently fulfill its purpose?
The bottom line is, while we, the college-educated and supposed literary elite, look at the Amish and say that they are not seeing the whole picture of what their lives could be, they are probably looking at us in a very similar, if not identical manner.
The grass isn't always greener on the other side.
It does seem that limiting the level cap for knowledge in Amish society is used to ensure the continuance of their society. But I think that the older people in Amish society are aware of what the have and what the rest of the world tends to lack: community. To use George Carlin's words (the second time I am on this blog), "I loved it when it didn't take a catastrophe to care about one another." From our readings in class, it seems the the Amish care for one another constantly. Whether they help to build a house or write ye olde blog letters, the Amish place great importance on the well-being of their collective community.
The concern for the collective well-being means that everybody is willing to help the individual. In some ways, I think that sacrificing my right to being myself would outweigh the benefits of stepping into Amish society. But you never know... having that many people genuinely care about you might just be a better formula for happiness than the one most people have in their day to day life.
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