Doing it Amish Style - They've been living without electricity and they're fine. How do they do it?

[ChefBourgeoisie]

I think that mainstream society harbors a long list of misconceptions about the Amish, and even here on this forum there are more than a few. I don't know how to dispel them, and I don't know that there's much point in trying... but I stumbled across this just a moment ago. I've been researching alternatives for tractor tires (they last a long time if not abused, but they eventually fall apart and I see no reasonable way to fabricate them yourself on a farm).

Steel Wheels on Tractors Help the Amish and Mennonites Avoid Temptation

There is this hilarious picture of a large, self-propelled combine with steel wheels.

The point isn't to eschew technology. Especially useful technologies (electricity's just fine, for instance). The point is that the bishops (the religious authority in Amish and Mennonite groups) don't want them casually driving on roads. Steel wheels discourage that, while still permitting tractors for agriculture.

I mostly just wanted to post this picture. I don't know what to make of it. It's both incredibly stupid and accidentally clever. Like, what problems do these wheels cause? Have to be really careful about traction, if the field's wet that's risking getting it stuck good (less an issue during harvest with a combine, but the general purpose tractors are often used year-round). Do you end up needing a new wheel 100 years later? Do they rust through? Do they ever break (something caught in a spoke) ?

 

[Agamemnon Busmalis]

If you'd pardon a humble retard's dumb quesion: As a warlord, why would you resort to violence and possibly even bloodshed over something you could easily solve with trade?

Depends, if the other side is weak and isn't going to fight back they're easy pickings. Much better to dominate them and extract labor/tribute than give up your own resources in a fair exchange. Basically what happened in the later era of Western Rome as well as other societal collapses over the centuries.

There is a reason why kings in post-Roman Europe had feudalism rather than wear hockey masks (unlike the Vikings and the nomadic Turks).

It took a while to settle down, it was violent for a long time after the collapse of Rome.

The feudal lords were fighting endless wars against each other for personal causes killing peasants, destroying towns, farms, even raiding churches and monasteries. The Church ultimately stepped in and was able to implement rules called the Peace and Truce of God limiting the scale of feudal warfare and confining it to extremely small periods of time.