Joe wrote:
I was in an Amish home and it was explained that they won't use
electricity
from the power company but they had refrigerators and freezers
supplied by gasoline generators.

B.

And the gas they put *into* those generators?

Oh, I get it, the power company uses technology to produce
electricity and that's bad, but the gas was made by dinosaurs, so
that's ok. Wait, made *from* dinosaurs.

I don't think that the Amish think in terms of "technology bad".
You're confusing them with liberals and econuts.

I think it's more a matter of "what happens in our community if we adopt
this technology" and instead of opining based in little information they
look at "well, the 'English' have been using it now for over a hundred
years and here is what has happened with them--we have all these
benefits on this side and all these costs (not just financial or
environmental) on this side--are the benefits worth the costs?" For a
generator-driven Unisaw apparently it works out that they are, for
general connection to the electrical grid, apparently it works out that
they aren't.

Hmmm. What if the power
company's electricity is produced from a dam? Then it's not
different because both groups use running water to power things. Is
that OK? I'm confused. Also, what if the topography of the area
doesn't even allow for water to run down hill thereby eliminating
that power source?

It's different because the source of power seems to be irrelevant to
them--what is important is that on-grid electrical power brings in all
sorts of what they see as liabilities that don't have anything at all
to do with electricity pe se or the means by which it is generated but
rather have to do with the kinds of interactions with outside society
that are required in order to have it installed and which will be made
much easier once it is in place. For example, by going on grid they
then become bound by the electrical code, which while it doesn't control
how they use it exactly, does require that it be implemented in a way
that constitutes temptation to use it in ways that they see as harmful
to the community. And by having circuits all over the house now it
becomes _easy_ to have a radio or television or cell phone where all of
those were more difficult when there was one generator in the workshop
and no permanent wiring.

I think I have it. To run the refrigerators and such off of
electricity generated by their own water power in a topographically
challenged area, they use a pump to get the water from the lower
holding pond to the upper holding pond so it can continue to run over
the wheel (that's recycling, folks) powered by a generator which is
run off of squeezins from organically grown corn from the still out
back.

Actually, most of their refrigerators and the like are gas-fired, not
electric. Having electricity in the house at all would be very
liberal--some do but it's not mainstream.

Before anyone gets in a tizzy, it *is* meant to be humorous.

Which it would be if their concerns about technology were based in the
issues that you address.

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