tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post8875392670354395976..comments2024-02-13T01:25:33.947-05:00Comments on The Gods Are Bored: Fear and Loathing in Lancaster, Part Three: GawkersAnne Johnsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15478513906953607043noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-29724559417552971462009-07-17T02:02:29.507-04:002009-07-17T02:02:29.507-04:00we have a lot of friends around here..i see them i...we have a lot of friends around here..i see them in town all the time..with the exception of thier clothing and the good behavior of their children..they's just folks.they know me from the family dollar so i always get waved at..makes me feel good..<br />i'd die for a tshirt from intercourse..yellowdoggrannyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14906624317290990109noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-41904609495647639312009-07-16T17:19:35.951-04:002009-07-16T17:19:35.951-04:00An interesting commentary on the unconsciousness o...An interesting commentary on the unconsciousness of the general society, which isn't, after all, surprising. Humanity evolves at a sluggish rate at best. Your post brings to light some of the grosser oddities of being human. All good fodder for thought and for making individual conscious efforts at being less judgmental, more accepting, and looking within instead of staring without!Alan Joelhttp://www.shamanschool.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-69130788816257813612009-07-15T17:43:43.357-04:002009-07-15T17:43:43.357-04:00The first time I came to the US, my friends and I ...The first time I came to the US, my friends and I did a bus tour to Niagara Falls and Washington DC. We drove through an Amish area on the way and were horrified when the bus slowed down in front of an Amish school and the guide told us "they don't like having their photo taken, but we're in the bus so they can't do anything".lucyhttp://pigpuppet.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-72273177886227344752009-07-15T14:49:41.674-04:002009-07-15T14:49:41.674-04:00My only experience with the Amish was in Brookevil...My only experience with the Amish was in Brookevillle Ohio where I was visiting family.<br /><br />I wanted to pick something up at the Ben Franklin store in the local strip mall.<br /><br />It was August, very hot and humid.<br /><br />I was wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt (nothing risque) which the last time I checked was perfectly acceptable summer attire, even in Ohio.<br /><br />An Amish family pulled up with their horse and buggy and made it quite clear with their glares/dirty looks that I was a harlot doomed to burn in hell.<br /><br />I have no desire to go gawk at them.A Wild Celtic Rosehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09484659213999993125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-48605766193222682762009-07-15T13:54:23.254-04:002009-07-15T13:54:23.254-04:00Up here we have Hutterites, who do allow for some ...Up here we have Hutterites, who do allow for some modern machinery. Maybe that is why they don't get tourists out to their farms gawking as they go about their business. <br /><br />I've always had a respect for these communities, who hold on to their beliefs and try to make their way through a rapidly-changing world. With sometimes better and sometimes worse success.<br /><br />It's still a little disconcerting to be at the store and see them in their traditional garb buying ordinary things like coffee creamer or toilet paper though. For some reason, I think many of us have this unacknowledged notion that these sort of communities are entirely self-sufficient and self-contained in some deeply mysterious manner.Maevehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03852349354673305704noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-35892675880472487882009-07-15T13:44:28.991-04:002009-07-15T13:44:28.991-04:00I think it's sort of intriguing that the Amish...I think it's sort of intriguing that the Amish are a tourist attraction, especially in light of what you say about food. How many of those tourists have ever seen anyone who produces their own food? It must be compelling, in some murky atavistic way that leads to buying jarred pickled eggs. <br /><br />There's a thought here that I can't quite articulate, but it has to do with the tension between contempt and longing that always seems to show up in American conversations about "simpler" lifestyles - they grow their own food, like third-world poor people, whom we pity and revile! but they are strong and sturdy like our pioneer ancestors, whom we idealize and revere! and all that confusion gets sublimated in funnel cakes and tacky quasi-religious souvenirs...Nettlehttp://nettle.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-71686080392372823662009-07-15T13:06:42.081-04:002009-07-15T13:06:42.081-04:00Being raised in the midst of hte Mennonite regions...Being raised in the midst of hte Mennonite regions, I always am cunfused and saddened by the spectacle of spectating that goes on here. Know why the Amish dolls have no faces? It's because only god can make a face and a soul. Likewise, the very Old Order Amish I have met really dislike photographs (Graven Images) and tend to avoid the tourists. <br /><br />Those readers with a pagan-minded liberalish worldview already know something of their plight, as the GOP and Religious Right gawk at us weirdo's, and the Amish are just a more marked distinction in disparity.<br /><br />My uncle used to drive the Amish around town, since it is permissible to ride in cars, just not own them, especially in the case of an elder needing supplies and not able to hitch up the horse for long-distances. They are a wonderfully friendly group of people if you accept their ways. <br />However, like you said, those of us 'tourists' are all damned to Hell, so are mostly acknowledged and ignored. There's no real revulsion towards us outsiders that I've encounterred. It's more a resigned acceptance of our mere existance. Like misquitoes.Maebiushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15818255129828936381noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12171673.post-91576426889836807002009-07-15T12:58:31.510-04:002009-07-15T12:58:31.510-04:00Although we aren't really aware of it, humans ...Although we aren't really aware of it, humans keep various odd varieties of themselves in Zoos, and those that we deem "mainstream" or "normal" visit these odd ducks in their "zoos". Those in the zoos peer back out and try hard not to laugh. Chimps, tho, DO laugh at us and even do ruder things like fling poo. Wouldn't it be funny if the Amish flung horse manure at US?Alex Pendragonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15877845166621794334noreply@blogger.com