A Special Insight Into the Amish
Oct. 3, 2006 — -- Lucy Walker spent three years making "Devil's Playground," a documentary on the Amish community in Pennsylvania.
Walker spoke to ABC News and shared her insights about the Amish people and how they might handle the tragic events that tore into their tight-knit world this week. Below are excerpts from what Walker told us:
I've always been completely obsessed with the Amish people ever since watching "Witness" when I grew up in England. I saw the whole of the world becoming infatuated with and following American culture. But living right in North America are these people that somehow aren't following the same trends when everyone around them is. "How are they immune?" I asked myself. I couldn't understand how they weren't having cars or jeans or music or sport or any of the things that you think would be so enticing. They were somehow resisting.
So I was thinking what is it that their culture has that makes them want to choose that lifestyle and stay living in this very simple way. And so that was my first thought when I originally became fascinated with them. As I slowly got to know them, it was a fascinating journey and I felt really, really privileged, because there's a real logic. To start with, you think they don't like technology, that they're resistant to change. But actually, they make terribly sophisticated decisions, weighing each decision about which technologies they want to adopt based on the impact it's going to have on their family and community life.
For example, they don't have means of electricity because they say that if you have all these appliances, then life gets too convenient -- you start to watch television, you stop spending time with your family and start to have other priorities and ... if they have a car, they'll drive in cars when they need to transport stuff. They'll hire drivers when they want to go farther than a horse and buggy ... which is limited by the horse's energy. But they won't drive a car. Why? Because if you can drive a car, then you have that autonomy and freedom and go off and do your own thing and that's going to take you away from the home, and sooner or later you're going to be staying away and traveling long distances, and all these things slowly give you options that pull you away from your family.
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