Thread by @homemadeguitars

What I would like to see happen is for young people to form intentional communities of what I have been calling Apocalypse Amish.
I'm the founding preacher.
First came Menno Simons. Menno was a Protestant when it was still a new thing, back in old Europe.
He read the book -

2. Protestants got to read it for themselves - and he said, We Christians are too attached to the World. We are competing economically, and also for social status, with non-believers. We must focus on our Community of Believers, and not wear fancy clothes or shiny things.

3. And, Menno said, Children cannot understand baptism or belief, so only adult baptism counts.
And his followers all got Baptized again as adults.
And they took his name, and became Menno-nites.
And the neighbors burned their houses down, but that's a separate path from tonight.

4. So, after a generation or two, as happens among humans, a young preacher rose up in the Mennonites and said, We're too worldly, too attached to the non-believers. And a schism occurred. His name was Joseph Amman. And his followers became the Amish.
And all the Mennonites,

5. and all the Amish, in old Europe were burned out, burned at the stake, tortured and murdered, for being separate and different. Non-believers. Heretics. And they all wound up in the Americas, every last one. None remained in Europe.
And they stayed off by themselves. Believers

6. And I believe that we are of and from Earth, evolved here, born here, made up out of Her, and we should shake off the chains of high speed and high energy, set ourselves free to support a living Earth whose time will surely come again, and I think soon.

7. And I believe that like the Mennonites and Amish before us, we have to disconnect ourselves from The World, eschew glory, power, speed, recognition, and become another animal powered, low speed, small scale, high density network of communities all around the country, all🌍🌎🌏

8. I'm not there. You can't do this by yourself. The machines we have literally make other people unnecessary. That's what machines are for. And like my Amish friend said, community can be a problem. But. We're wired for it. Hardwired. We can figure it out.

9. I would provide 40 acres to the right community, a few family-type units who wanted to farm / work like Amish do, more or less.
The Amish and Mennonite communities are held together by common beliefs in Christianity, a sky god, a savior, and a book. Somehow the strength of it

10. has enabled them to overcome obstacles and stumbling blocks.
Before tractors and cars got here the only difference between Amish, Mennonite, and your basic white family farmers (black people were always treated worse) was clothes and buggy styles.
When the fast machines came,

11. a majority of the Amish churches, and a minority of Mennonite churches, said, Nope, that machinery will fragment our communities. These folk have been defending their communities against fire and disruption since the 1600s. Their communities are central to them.
No cars, 🚜

12. Each church district makes their own specific rules, so generalization is risky, but - most Amish are horsedrawn. Most Mennonites use cars and tractors. Amish communities tend to be more compact and smaller scale. You can really only properly manage so much land with animals.

13. And if you're going to go down to Sam's place to ask a question, and you're going behind a long-legged Standardbred buggy horse, you'd just as soon it's not real far.
So people stay closer together.
I believe that we have an obligation to try to save this biosphere as strong

14. As any Amishman believes that Jesus is his savior.
I believe it strongly enough to hold together a community, if I could find, dream up, create, such a community.
It has to be belief. It doesn't have to be a sky god. I believe in a living ecosystem, I believe it can save us.

15. Each Amish family owns their own farm. Each has their little bit. They're not any sort of commune. But they agree to give up some autonomy, to accept the rules the community forms. Their underlying belief structure is defined, and the rules are for the specific reason of

16. preserving the community. Each little group is a little different from any other little group, yet overall there is a unanimity of purpose.
Is not saving Earth for the humans not yet here a purpose? Is not preserving and healing the biosphere a purpose?
It is our only hope.

17. I believe the people at COP have made it clear: their purpose as an organization is to preserve and defend the industrial growth and extraction economy. They have to other purpose. Greenwashing the dying biosphere and climate is part of that purpose.
They ain't fixing it. No.

18. This is a call to action, not for those who can't, but for those who can.
There is an enormous amount to learn. I'm not exaggerating. You can't start this the day the gas stations all run dry. It's too complicated. There's too much dead land called farms and not enough life.

19. Animal power is the only source beyond our own muscles that will be available after the gas stations run dry. If you've got a 400 gallon tank buried in your yard, you won't be driving around for the rest of your life. But donkeys can make more donkeys, and their fuel grows 🌾

20. Cattle. Some folks prefer cattle. If you live where there is plentiful water, and you'd rather work an ox, work an ox. An army fed by a country farming with water buffaloes kicked our asses in a face to face matchup. Lotsa cattle in America on any given day.

21. Study permaculture or any of its conceptual kinfolk. Make friends with the land and teach it to feed you. Don't be the Amish, be something new. Their focus is in Heaven. Ours has to be here. Earth needs us *desperately*.
Sink carbon in soil your own personal self.

22. Shoot for 100% energy self sufficiency, not through high energy technology but through food energy technologies. Set your speed by the energy in natural food, yours, your donkeys', your horses', your oxen's. Bring others to the fold, evangelize life and a living Earth.

23. You may never reach 100% energy self-sufficiency, but just by shooting for it your entire focus changes. You notice all the energy you import. You notice the 22 pounds a gallon. Build communities that can survive without the machine, because there's no way in Hell it's solid.

24. and in my opinion it's impossible to do by yourself. The Amish were right. Are right. the basic unit of humanity is the community. Not too big, not too small - they intentionally limit the size of any one church district, make provision in their lifeways to stay connected

25. between / among church districts. They have a national newspaper. Their own publishing houses. Their own schools. Only to age 12, but all the Amish people I personally know are business people, profitably operating a business on that education. Teach them to read and figure.

26. Teach them to think. Yes, there are boundaries, but Amish young people are invited to look at the World and decide: them or us? That way or this way?
Their numbers are growing. More young people choose the horses, the buggies, the rules, the restrictions, the community.

27. I couldn't join them, because I can't share their beliefs. But I got close enough to see a great deal of wisdom. Flawed human beings are going to have flaws in their systems, and there is no other kind. So nothing is perfect.

28. I think that world out there sucks. We'd be better off to turn our backs on it, to create our own places with our own values. But it's so hard, no, it's impossible to see the way out a windshield at 60 miles an hour. It's entirely different.
The rest of the country just chose

28. Concrete and steel, speed and energy, death of all that gets in our way.
Let them go.
We don't need them.

Errata: in 17, *no other purpose.