by Gill 28 Replies latest jw friends
I don't think a JW who has actually observed an Amish culture closely would want it.
Mention having to wash clothes the old-fashioned way without electricity to a woman.
Or taking a buggy to a meeting on a bitter cold day or a rainstorm.
The JWs I know want their flush toilets, electric lights and all the amenities driven by electricity, gasoline to power their travels.
Blondie
And do they have any idea how hard it is to make the panes of glass that all those houses (Halls) seem to sport?
'Hovah's gonna make trees that sprout glass planes. DUH! jeez....it's so obvious.
~luv, jojo
I went to see Amish country in PA just 2 months ago and that's all I could think about was how that this is what JWs want...
I would rather take a forever dirt nap.
Anyone see this series on TV or read the book? I think this is gives us a pretty good idea of what it would really be like in a Watchtower. paradise. Who would they asign to do these jobs? I'd also rather have the "dirt nap".
This was a big issue for me. When I was younger, I always had in mind an "Amish paradise" as the new system, really a decentralized agrarian society. Really, this is the only type of society which would be realistic under the JW constraints of their own "new system," since it allows everyone to struggle along at the same level, relatively speaking. But then I started thinking about cities and their socioeconomic structure and studying the nature of economes (eventually getting me into my current major here at college) and realized it would be impossible to not have an economic system, because human economy is as natural as nature's ecology. In fact, it is, in essence, human ecology. The JW new system can't account for the division of labor and an agrarian society to equal degrees. Society would gravitate to villages and cities, leaving some stragglers behind, just like what happened 150 years ago, simply because we have all the knowledge to make our lives infinitely easier, and human nature would take advantage of that - regardless of any ideals of an "Amish paradise."
Another problem of having billions of people living in a decentralized, agrarian society, spread out over the landscape, each eeking out their own subsistence without thinking about the regional and global effects of their resource use, is environmental degradation. Just look at Rwanda, Malawi, or Haiti in particular, to see the devestating effects of deforestation for mere fuel, much less the pressure on simply having enough land to grow food for your family. Rwanda was at one time one of the most densely populated countries in the world - and they were largely an agrarian society. Now throw in the added complication of population growth without a ~1% death rate and you have a few problems.
As much as they would like to deny it the WT membership mirrors the demographic they live in. A few years back, many JW's were carpenters, mechanics, grew gardens and lived in rural areas...plus that generation had lived out the major wars and depressions... folks that could live 'without'. Society as a whole was inventive and hardworking... people who could find industious solutions to production of goods and services.
That bunch may have been able to to cut it in the agrarian "New World". Today's third, fourth and fith generation JW's are pretty urban. A look at most KH kids shows me a kid who may be able to handle a mall job..not many tough, fingernail's-in-the-dirt types seem to be around the Kingdom Halls in the western world. In my opinion, most would fold like a cheap tent if they had to work a hard week on a ranch or farm..much less learn a trade or improvise a mechanical solution to most problems.
The growth areas today, like Africa... those folks may be buying the New Earth. But for the Third world I imagine that myth is a move up and something to look forward to.
~Hill
Becareful of what you wish for, dubbies...you might just get it. And then you might long for the days when you could gas up your car and go anywhere. And then you'd have to be stoned for longing the things in the past.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7428487200380416428&q=Amish+paradise&hl=en
Is this the kind of 'Paradise' they aim for?
bebu!! SNAP!!
Great minds think alike!!!!
