Do you think that you could live as the Amish do?

I could in a heartbeat and do dream of that opportunity especially when the tension strings of modern life get wound up real tight and when the phone and cable bill arrive!

Maybe temporarily. I don’t necessarily place that life “above” the life of most people. I certainly am fine with my life and don’t feel that any other lifestyle is better than what I have now. Doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like to try that and see what it’s like. I don’t think technology is a problem per se, but I do think life being so complex and stressful that it drives people to madness is a definite problem.

Yes. I wish I could.

Yes, I could do it. And I would enjoy it.

Yeah, I think so. Farming and being self sustaining doesn’t sound so bad. I’d want to be around a group of close friends so we could kick back with some moonshine though.

Hell no. I grew up not far from the Amish and I just took my daughter through Millerburg and a few other towns where the Amish live.
They are up at 4:30am and work till sundown with breaks for church in between. All they do is church and work, church and work, church and work.
They do not drink, they do not socialize very much, they do not smoke, they ride around in buggies and before you all say yeah I could do it keep in mind that you are in Ohio and Pennsylvania. Have you spent a winter in either of these states? It is not fun and it is cold as hell. Now spend it as an Amish. Riding outside on horses, no heat in your house except for a fire…..... I doubt that anyone here on Fluther could do this.
@zenele if you desire to do so, you can join them. Just go talk to them.
If you remove the religious aspect of living like the Amish do then you are not living like the Amish at all.

@judochop Ughhhhhhhh, I totally forgot about air conditioning. Maybe I will rethink this.

Where do I sign up?!

@judochop I think the point of the question was to ask if we could live as scarcely as they do.

I could not like as they do, but I like(need) to keep my life more simple than more people.
We tent camp without electricity when we travel in the summer.

I really don’t know. How could I keep up with the Bachelorette?
Seriously, like with anything else, it would have it’s nightmarish aspects and rewards.

Temporarily I could, but I have too many friends and family members that live too far away – I wouldn;t want to sacrifice them to make it permanent. Not unless they all came to live on the same farm with me.

@judochop I haven’t met any Amish people in Israel.

I believe I could :)

There was an Amish family in Winnipeg and they were all real nice people, but I could never live like that. They owned a restaurant, and the children were working in it, I’m guessing they were homeschooled on weekends or something.
I also disagree that technology degrades the authenticity of a human being, seeing as we are adapting and evolving beings. We make technology, so it’s pretty much a part of us. I’m sure people said the same thing during the Renaissance.
That doesn’t mean the Amish aren’t real people either. I still watch a lot of shit on VHS, and to a lot of people today that’s completely insane.

I tried to ask that in the Amish chat room I set up, but got no responses.

Long term, no. I do think I would like to try it maybe for a couple of months. Maybe in the fall and spring.

@Symbeline Good Points. I suppose I don’t mean technology in general degrading us, but our reliance or near addiction to it and the information it provides (e.g., the feeling of overwhelming panic when my iphone going missing for more than 4 minutes and I can’t check my texts, shudder).

Yeah, that’s a good point in itself. But we only rely on technology because it’s there. If it all went kaput and left society, I think we could still manage. The will to live is strong, even if that means eating pigeon.

Ha. Yes. And right now I feel like I need to eat pigeon.

I could easily do it, so long as the religious stuff was removed. (It could be replaced by ritualistic spiritual stuff though).

I’ve done it before until county inspectors ruined what we had and would gladly do it again. When I lived like that, I didn’t get sick once, in 3 years. And rarely got frustrated.

And barely got used to cold showers, but they became hot after a solar installation.

@Symbeline I’ve eaten pigeon and it’s actually really tasty.

I’ve known people who raise pigeons to eat them. I got that from a documentary about homeless people though, how in big cities some trap pigeons, pluck them, cook them and eat them. They can tell a healthy pigeon from a not so healthy one and all.

No. I think it’s very hard if you are raised differently.

@Symbeline Please, please tell us that a step was omitted, and that the pigeons were killed before they were plucked and cooked.

Pigeons = little chickens.

@zenele actually they’re not much like chicken at all. The meat is dark, more like duck, and has a pretty strong flavour.

@zenele I highly doubt that you ever will.

You never know. All kinds of people from all kinds of faiths come here. But I know I could live the simple life – and I don’t mean Paris Hilton’s.

@Pied_Pfeffer Well yeah, I thought that went without saying. Homeless folk are homeless, they’re not monsters.

@zenele
I just see it as the opposite of simple.
I have lived without running water and electricity and heat or air for 3 months before, it was easy. We did it during the summer.
I know the winters here (Amish Country) are super cold, sometimes reaching minus 20 with wind.

the technological part yes I grew up with no electricity the rest of it no it would be stupid.

I could not do it and wouldn’t want to leave the comforts of my computer. The labor would kill me, but if I was raised that way then I don’t think I would have a problem.