I've never seen an Amish, let alone met one.

I can sympathise with what they are trying to do, to some extent, but no man
is an island and the mores necessarily get a bit complicated and decisions
become arbitrary in some way that may seem less so to an initiate.

What's the basic rule on technology?
Forgive the flippancy but I gather that it's something like,
"Damn the ICE, unless it's older than anyone likely to be operating it."
In this way it becomes something that is always just "there" and can then be
considered non-technological in some way.

I can understand it simply if they say, followed a neolithic lifestyle or had
a cut off point at, (thinking), the industrial revolution or at mass
production or had a blanket ban on fossil fuels or any one of dozens of other
obvious rules, but the tempering of ideology with the minimum of expediency
is absolutely fascinating.

I supppose it's easy to say "shun technology unless it's absolutely
necessary" but it's intriguing to see what _necessary_ might mean in terms of
the group compared with the individual.

Is steam power more correct than ICE but less correct than water power or
sweat? Is plastic ever a good thing? It seems like it should be obvious, but
looking closely I realize I really have no idea how it works.

The existence seems to be almost Zen (yeah, I know, I know.... be gentle) but
I admire the _focus_ greatly and the lack of guile.