"A practical example of how to survive rather elegantly in the modern world."

[JohnyCanuck]

The barn raising
by Gene Logsdon

From Gene Logsdon (1983)

The summer tornado that touched down in Holmes County left a path of destruction cut as cleanly into the landscape as a swath mown through the middle of a hayfield. The wind plucked up giant oaks, tulip poplars, ashes, and maples and laid them down in crisscrossed, splintered chaos through the Amish woodland. With the same nicety for borderline definition, the tornado sliced through Amish farmsteads, capriciously reducing barns to kindling while ignoring buggy sheds, chicken coops, corncribs, and houses close by. In the twenty-minute dance that the tornado performed before exiting into the wings of the sky as abruptly as it had come, it destroyed at least fifteen acres of mature forest a hundred years or more in the growing, and four barns that represented the collected architectural wisdom of several centuries of rural tradition.

But what followed in the wake of the tornado during the next three weeks was just as awesome as the wind itself. In that time—three weeks—the forest devastation was sawed into lumber and transformed into four big new barns. No massive effort of bulldozers, cranes, semi-trucks, or the National Guard was involved. The surrounding Amish community rolled up its sleeves, hitched up its horses and did it all. Nor were the barns the quick-fix modern structures of sheet metal hung on posts stuck in the ground. They were massive three-story affairs of post-and-beam framing, held together with hundreds of hand-hewn mortises and tenons.

A building contractor, walking through the last of the barns to be completed, could only shake his head in disbelief. Even with a beefed-up crew, it would have taken him most of the summer to build this barn alone and it would have cost the farmer $100,000, if in fact he could have found such huge girder beams at any price.

The Amish farmer who was the recipient of this new barn smiled. The structure, complete with donated hay, grain, and animals to replace all that was destroyed by the storm, cost him “about thirty thousand dollars, out-of-pocket money”—most of that funded by his Amish Church’s own internal insurance arrangement. “We give each other our labor,” he said. “That’s our way. In the giving, nothing is lost, though, and much is gained. We enjoy barn raisings. So many come to work that no one has to work very hard. And we get in a good visit.”

The outsider listened, dumbfounded. The barn raising had already shaken his faith in the religion of Modern Progress in which he had been raised. He had come to see a folksy rural skill of the nineteenth century and, instead, witnessed a practical example of how to survive rather elegantly in the modern world.

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/47568

[geckosfeet]

1. I love this part -

"We give each other our labor," he said. "That's our way. In the giving, nothing is lost, though, and much is gained."

[onethatcares]

16. I like this part better.

"so many come to work that no one has to work too hard".

They have a saying, "many hands make light work".

Peace

[Ilsa]

2. Has Rushblob called the Amish "communists" yet? nt

[Fovea]

3. Communities can do what the free market cannot

The Amish never abandoned community for the wide screen tv, 2000 sqft boxes squatting on farm land,
Xboxes replacing conversation.

It is not the complete fault of modern suburban Amercans.
They were sold this load of crap.
Now they have the mother of all buyer's remorse.

[NashVegas]

6. The Free Market Depends on Divide & Conquer Techniques

To sell a product, and super-specialize labor to keep us stoopid.

These are people who recognize and understand.

Because of their lifestyle, the Amish knew how to use their hands, their whole bodies, in physical work. They could perform physical tasks in less than half the time and energy it might take a typical office worker, or even a typical blue-collar worker trained to do only one job well.

[Luminous Animal]

11. Tell me then...

do the people in your community know how to build a barn? Me and my neighbors are; a film editor, a famous underground cartoonist, a CFO for a winery, a bookkeeper, a physical therapist, a high school teacher, an administrator at a university, an airport shuttle driver, a social worker... we are all a community. We hang out in our backyards (in the city of San Francisco) and cook together several nights a week and look after each other's children and pets but none of us have the capability of rebuilding a barn or a house, let alone our city. That's why we pay taxes. That is why government services are important.

[Oak2004]

13. The problem, really, is that government should be like a barn raising, but it isn't

Government should be what happens when the community pools its resources and talents for the benefit of all.

Government for quite some time has been the captive of a handful of people determined to insure that every barn raised personally benefits them.

[Luminous Animal]

15. The problem is that Americans are assholes...

and have bought into the destructive notion that government is the problem and not the solution and have disengaged themselves from the process and have allowed the crooks to take control.

[KittyWampus]

4. Word of caution- the fascists who want to kill off government often point to this sort

of self reliance as proof that we don't need government programs.

Let local communities deal with their own issues.

Who needs to help out Katrina victims? Let private charities step up to the plate.

I fully embrace local communities and fraternities working within their own localities.

But let's not allow what we do privately for and with our neighbors to supplant what our state and federal government does best.

[snappyturtle]

7. I see your point but so often, it seems, the gov't's best is not very good....not very good

at all.

[Stellabella]

14. That's only when people who hate government are in charge.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, the only time a significant portion of the population has improved quality of life is when the government has stepped in.

Before social security, a large number of the elderly lived in poverty.

Before food stamps and especially WIC, many children went hungry.

A well run government is possible. But it has to be run and staffed by competent people who are qualified to do their jobs and don't just give the job to a buddy.

[snappyturtle]

17. True, unfortunately we haven't had government advocates for a long time

now, hence my reply (above).

[Stellabella]

18. Yep. It's insane to put people who hate government in charge of it.

That's like putting child abusers in a day care center.

[elehhhhna]

8. well, when we're all farmer s who have the time to do some barn-raising,

we can start doing more private-labor.

I thought government was CREATED to do collectively what we cannot do individually.

[Doremus]

9. Well-said.

[crikkett]

10. Make no mistake - Katrina victims were not allowed help

First of all your 'fascist' friends are mistaken - fascism increases the size of government until it controls every aspect of our lives.

Secondly, the situation around Katrina is misunderstood --

It wasn't the hurricane that flooded New Orleans, it was busted levees, whose maintenance and upkeep was the responsibility of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Katrina 'victims' were being forcibly relocated.
Private charities were not allowed to 'step up to the plate.'
Ordinary people were not allowed to launch their own rescues or deliver supplies to flood victims.
Residents (point this out to your fundie friends) were DISARMED by men with machine guns and then left defenseless.
The President actually gave 'shoot on sight' orders to military and mercenary personnel in the area.
Government operatives were caught disconnecting emergency phone lines to the 9th ward by the sheriff; who forced them to reconnect the lines at gunpoint.
NOLA citizens who tried to walk out of New Orleans were turned back at gunpoint by neighboring communities' cops.
NOLA citizens who got together to clean up their neighborhood and return home were forcibly stopped.

Don't be "sold" on the official story of Katrina. What was done to the people of New Orleans borders on ethnic cleansing.

And the levees are still in disrepair.

[snappyturtle]

5. I K&R'd this after reading the above and now that I have read the

entire article, I'd like to K&R it again! Wonderful! Thanks for posting.

[babylonsister]

12. Everyone should be like this. Whoa. Thank you. nt