What's He Selling?

He just has to say shit he has no damn business saying!

"They're coping very well," said Kraybill, who heads the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown College.

So, are they doing well? On what basis are we supposed to accept his statement? Or is he just spouting propaganda? Whenever the subject might reflect negatively on the Amish, he's a paragon of the detached impartial observer, but here he gives us no specifics about any individual and yet makes a sweeping statement, that reflects positively on the Amish. And what about the individual that may in fact not be coping well? Did he interview every last person? The whole fucking world thinks they forgave the shooter on day one. Now we're told they're coping very well! What purpose does this portrayal serve? Who is it for?

Do us a favor Kraybill, "SHUT THE FUCK UP!"

Not willing to pay the price

Mast is a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit filed this month seeking to stop the government from tagging the ears of cattle with computer chips, chips that Mast and others say violate their religious freedom and may represent the biblical "mark of the beast," condemning those who comply to eternal damnation.

So if they believe this, why aren't they willing to stop having cattle? Since when is "following Jesus, made easy through exemption" their new slogan? Why are we supposed to risk our lives so they can be true to their faith? I thought they were supposed to be willing to give up their life for their faith.

The bitch of it is that, there is no way the Amish guy is doing this of his own volition. Some outsider is helping him, some son-of-a-bitch who cares not a wit how badly the Amish guy is betraying his faith by doing this.

Bla bla bla

The Amish approach business with an attitude that holds lessons for the non-Amish world, says Erik Wesner, a researcher who is writing a book about Amish business practices.

yea yea yea. It's so damn chic to critique our own culture! What about the Amish? Are they worthy of the honor of critique? Based on the evidence, apparently not. Real nice of them though, to serve as lab rats in our quest for a better society.

Wesner is the college's Fall 2008 Snowden Fellow and has been conducting research at its Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies.

It sounds legit. But, how many of the books are going to be purchased by business people, or is he engaged in unadulterated voyeurism? Is his work going to be legitimate science, or will it only pose as science, while exploiting the otherness of the Amish?

"Mine is more of a business wisdom according to the Amish [approach] with a transference to things the non-Amish can do," he said.

If we are transferring lessons from Amish culture to our culture, we have to first evaluate how our values differ from theirs. In the Kraybill school of thought, a spade in non-Amish culture never transfers into a spade in Amish culture. What's an accepted negative in our world gets passed off as benign in the Amish. The resulting portrayal is that the Amish live in a wonderland world. Now we're going to use those fantasies to critique our business world? Horse poop! This is nothing more than the most base form of voyeurism masquerading as scientific research!

well well well

David Weaver Zercher in an interview on Amish America

it seems to me that the extension of Amish forgiveness allowed observers who were disturbed by the violence to bring “closure” to this senseless act of violence when in fact quick and superficial closure was not warranted. And the media was more than happy to provide their consumers with a “happy” ending. I myself would have hoped for less closure and more reflection not only on forgiveness, but on the violence that occasioned the Amish response.
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Many tourists, however, are not all that interested in learning about Amish life.
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I would suspect that Americans are both more informed about Amish life and more misinformed at the same time. That may sound like a contradiction, but I think it’s possible to have a greater familiarity with a group and, by virtue of that familiarity, possess more incorrect information about them.

It's great to see some intelligent dialogue, but I call chicken shit on both the interviewer and Weaver Zercher for their silence on whether the police acted appropriately in their response to the Nickel Mines school shooting. The above quotes reveal a rare insight into the Amish, non-Amish relationship. Armed with that insight, how is it possible to not also be aware of the questions relating to the police response? Ignorance is bad enough, indifference is vile!

blatant disregard of reality

Given a free and open chance to leave the sect, four of five Amish young adults elect to stay.

Amish kids do not have a free and open chance to leave! What will it take slay this myth? This portrayal is an attempt to identify an aspect of Amish life which western culture can relate to. What is more sacred in western culture than choice? (see, they're just like us!) Too bad it's all projection on our part.
The Amish are first and foremost an authoritarian community. They're doctrine is very clear, leaving is a ticket to eternal damnation! If you're seventeen years old and have been immersed in an all encompassing propaganda that promotes that view point, how valid is the idea that you have a choice?
I applaud promoting our commonality, but doing so with utter disregard for their reality is demeaning. Erroneously projecting our values onto them is arrogant on our part and reveals a contempt for their real identity. To top it off, the over all gist of the article pretends to cast them in a favorable light. What a crock of hoooie!

MORE DEFIANCE

Members of the conservative Swartzentruber Amish sect have rejected a possible agreement about the disposal of sewage from two outhouses at the group’s Barr Township school.

There was a time when municipalities were heavy handed about everyone kowtowing to regulations. Now the roles seem to be reversed. It is one thing for libertarians to push back at the reach of government, but a completely different ball of wax for the Amish to do it. The political right wing has frequently used the Amish as props to further their "less government agenda", all the while pretending that these efforts are compatible with the Amish people's best interests. Nothing could be further from the truth, they are wolves in sheep's clothing.