The Amish Culture

Something Seems Amish
In the current era of globalization and technological advancement, the Amish cultures still remaining come up short when trying to function as adequate utopias. Oxford Dictionary’s definition of a utopia is: “An imagined place or state of things in which everything is perfect.”, and like many of people and societies that claimed they are the perfect example of this ‘perfect place’, The Amish are deficient in multiple places. The culture as a whole has the mentality that less is more and that they will succeed as long as they have faith, but in reality they spend the majority of the time completing tedious tasks that have since been improved upon by the rest of the world. While other societies around the world are making

While the Amish may retain a subtle and innocent exterior, there are many parts under the surface that show how dark the society really is. Among many positive parts of the community, like their craftsmanship, enduring faith, and perseverance in times of struggle, the Amish also harbor many parts of the contrary like pollution of lakes, animal abuse, and even sexual abuse. In the Amish society crime is not dealt with the same way. In order to be freed of sin, no matter the crime, all one must do is confess aloud to the community. One woman that escaped the Amish community, Mary Byler, explained how throughout her childhood she was sexually abused and raped by multiple men of the community, and worse of all, her older brother. When she reported these crimes to the police these men faced some jail time and community service, and while the rest of the world sees Mary as a victim, her old community considers her the criminal for leaving and reporting these acts (Caroline). While most of the united states would turn their heads at the sight of animal cruelty, the Amish are known to own 20% of puppy mills in the U.S. Due to their belief in the ability to harm or kill what is their property, the Amish are able to avoid animal cruelty laws by claiming puppies as livestock, and thus allowing them to treat them however they please. The puppies in these mills are subjected to horrible living conditions (wire fencing, minimal food, surrounded by waste), and when they are no longer needed for breeding, they are taken out back and slaughtered, often times shot, drowned, or thrown in a woodchipper (Caroline). On a lighter note, but still of dire context, the Amish community in Lancaster, PA have been found to be major contributors to high levels of manure and fertilizer runoff in the Chesapeake Bay. The EPA has made efforts to try to get Amish farmers to stop their