| Most Amish sects do not prohibit electricity. It is not uncommon for them to have electrical devices powered by solar panels. I don't think most have anything against internal combustion engines. As your own link notes, they might use such engines to power air compressors. What concerns the Amish is being too dependent on the outside world. Tying to the regional electrical grid would make them too dependent. They aren't isolationists, though. They will still buy from and sell to outsiders. Using things like gasoline or diesel generators to power air compressors is OK because it isn't seen as requiring becoming too closely tied. Probably because if their gasoline supplier becomes unreliable, they can buy from someone else. In general, the Amish avoidance of technology is greatly overstated. They don't so much avoid it as take a very cautious approach, making sure they know how it will impact their society before they let it in. They have a few people try it out, while the rest observe how it goes, and they watch how the outside world handles it. Only when they understand what changes it will bring, good and bad, do they decide if they are going to adopt it or skip it. They are kind of like where the rest of us were 20-50 years ago (it varies depending on the particular technology) except they are avoiding the mistakes we were making back then when we were rushing to embrace the latest stuff. In a few decades, there will probably be Amish equivalents of Facebook and Twitter but without being full of trolling and misinformation, because the Amish will wait for us to figure out how to control that before they make their versions. Here's a good article on Amish and technology [1]. [1] https://kk.org/thetechnium/amish-hackers-a/ |