Mortimer Schnerd, RN wrote:
Nova wrote:
A few years back I stopped into an Amish woodworking shop In East
Otto, NY and was surprised to see a brand new Unisaw in the shop.
The owner must have read my face because the first thing he said is,
"It's allowed as long as it isn't powered off the grid".

He was running it off a generator tied to a Chevy V8.


It reminds me of my grandfather when one day we went to a store he
had sworn he'd never use again: "Anger is one thing but business is
business."

Sounds like the Amish are reaching a bit to justify what everybody
else has already accepted: that we upgrade our circumstances as
required. If the Amish were really as old fashioned as the
stereotype would suggest, they'd walk instead of riding in one of
those newfangled horse drawn carriages.

Practicality usually wins out.

That's the thing, they aren't "old fashioned", just careful about what
changes they make and when they make them.

They don't seem to be opposed to change, but they seem determined that
they are going to control the changes rather than letting the changes
control them. They don't forbid their people to have cars because cars
are "newfangled", their reasons are more complex than that--they've
watched what happened in the "English" world when everybody had cars and
they aren't OK with it.

--
--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)