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polymathwannabe comments on Open thread, Sep. 28 - Oct. 4, 2015 - Less Wrong Discussion

3 Post author: MrMind 28 September 2015 07:13AM

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Comment author: polymathwannabe 28 September 2015 07:48:45PM -1 points [-]

The Amish intentionally restrict their children's exposure to foreign ideas. That's less achievable in normal society.

Comment author: Lumifer 28 September 2015 07:56:00PM 3 points [-]

Define "normal". US looks pretty normal to me :-/

Comment author: polymathwannabe 29 September 2015 12:34:04AM *  -1 points [-]

OK, I'll be clearer: the Amish are a closed subculture within the U.S. Inside the Amish little world it is very difficult to learn about other ways of living. Outside of the Amish little world, but still within the U.S., you find the tremendously complicated, varied, and unpredictable chaos that is normal society, where you can see both the borders of other closed subcultures (e.g. underground crime syndicates, elite social clubs, or Druze) and the cross-pollination between relatively more open subcultures (e.g. hipsters, emos, goths, surfer dudes, straight-edge punks, Harley-Davidson riders, tattooists, backpackers, metalheads, otakus and LARPers all hanging out with each other) which together constitute the "normal."

Comment author: Lumifer 29 September 2015 12:41:02AM 5 points [-]

Inside the Amish little world it is very difficult to learn about other ways of living.

This is not true. Amish do not live in gated communities. They are in daily contact with normal (albeit rural) American life.

hipsters, emos, goths, surfer dudes, straight-edge punks, Harley-Davidson riders, tattooists, backpackers, metalheads, otakus and LARPers all hanging out with each other

That's not true either. They don't.

In any case, your claim was "More children of conservatives does not equal more conservative people". There are a lot more Amish and Amish are definitely "conservative people". Why are there more Amish?

Comment author: polymathwannabe 29 September 2015 12:58:40AM -1 points [-]

From Wikipedia:

... average of seven children per family.

Amish rules allow marrying only between members of the Amish Church.

They typically operate their own one-room schools and discontinue formal education at grade eight, at age 13/14.

Almost no Amish go to high school and college.

the educational authorities allow the Amish to educate their children in their own ways.

Desertion from the Amish community is not a long-term trend, and was more of a problem in the early colonial years.

Rumspringa notwithstanding, the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences without needing physical fences to do so.

Comment author: Lumifer 29 September 2015 01:30:32AM 4 points [-]

the Amish way of life has several built-in features that repel modern influences

Well, of course. That's how a culture survives without being melted down in a pot. In a certain sense, that's what makes it "conservative".

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