I don’t expect to find strong evidence on this topic anytime soon, so I’m making do with what’s available. I think I’ve been influenced by a fair amount of poorly legible evidence.
Cortisol and HRV data would likely be valuable. I predict that they would show that the average Amish person is mildly less stressed than the average American.
The Amish seem to approve of outsiders converting to be Amish, but they are definitely not making it easy. It’s likely somewhat hard to get started, because more tourists want to visit Amish communities than those communities are willing to interact with. You’d need to learn an obscure dialect of German in order to be accepted. Then learn lots of rules about which technologies can be used when. Many people are mildly addicted to something that the Amish prohibit or heavily restrict (television, electricity).
Something like half of new converts eventually drop out. That’s important evidence that establishes that Amish communities can’t be a lot better than other cultures. But I think it’s consistent with Amish culture being slightly better on average.
I’m only making a rather weak claim that Amish communities are a decent place to live. My stronger claim is that, based on what many Americans claim to want, there’s something weird about how few give any thought to converting. In particular, I see a discrepancy between how much people say they value equality, versus how much they seek it out.
I don’t expect to find strong evidence on this topic anytime soon, so I’m making do with what’s available. I think I’ve been influenced by a fair amount of poorly legible evidence.
Cortisol and HRV data would likely be valuable. I predict that they would show that the average Amish person is mildly less stressed than the average American.
The Amish seem to approve of outsiders converting to be Amish, but they are definitely not making it easy. It’s likely somewhat hard to get started, because more tourists want to visit Amish communities than those communities are willing to interact with. You’d need to learn an obscure dialect of German in order to be accepted. Then learn lots of rules about which technologies can be used when. Many people are mildly addicted to something that the Amish prohibit or heavily restrict (television, electricity).
Something like half of new converts eventually drop out. That’s important evidence that establishes that Amish communities can’t be a lot better than other cultures. But I think it’s consistent with Amish culture being slightly better on average.
I’m only making a rather weak claim that Amish communities are a decent place to live. My stronger claim is that, based on what many Americans claim to want, there’s something weird about how few give any thought to converting. In particular, I see a discrepancy between how much people say they value equality, versus how much they seek it out.
(Apologies for low-effort response to an interesting article.)