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.

There's some real logic to it. We've all experienced that. Things like where you don't have a cell phone and you're actually enjoying talking to the people around you, or when you're on vacation or something like that. And if you imagine on a grand scale that some of these modern conveniences that we've come to rely on, that they just don't need and they're actually more happy without. It's always quite striking to me what a wonderful, happy, fulfilled life these people lead -- it was quite tempting -- even I who value my education and my freedom and my plane travel and my career -- I was really, really tempted to drop it all and live with these fantastic people. And the security you get when you're living with your children and grandchildren around you in this gorgeous rolling countryside. Paradise, Pa., really is a paradise.

When you think about the fact that you don't really have to worry about your place in the world -- you really have to concentrate on enjoying it with your family. When you think about when you have medical bills, neighbors will always club together and help you, and even if they can't afford it -- then they'll just keep on having quilt sales or bake sales, raising the money together. There's never a problem that you would face alone. If your barn burns down, the whole community will raise it again for you, and it's just an amazing way to live.

They might look like it's a very simple lifestyle, but it's very well thought through, and they've got some very sophisticated approaches to everything -- well thought through attitudes and beliefs. They really walk the walk. They don't talk the talk.

I can't think of anything that would shake this community more than this event. They would be speechless about it. However, they are a very strong community, and I think sometimes people underestimate it just because they look simple in some ways. They're terribly sophisticated and the community aid -- when there's a barn burning down, for example, everyone will come together and raise the barn together, and if you can think of the mental health and community support -- the whole community will be pulling together, praying together, meeting together and talking care of each other, baking for each other, and I'm sure that all the friends and family who are too far to come by horse and buggy would be hiring drivers and coming to the community to help. And that kind of support will hold them in really, really great stead and they'll also draw a lot on their faith and their very firm conviction that heaven is right and that innocent children will undoubtedly be welcomed into heaven.