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Genetic Research In The Heart of Amish Country
FrenchyinOntario writes "Insular, inbred communities like the Ashkenazi Jews and Indian tribes can be a bonanza of genetic information for researchers, and the Amish & Mennonite communities in the United States are proving to be fertile ground as well for scientists who want to better understand the nature of genetic diseases and how rare illnesses occur more frequently in such closed-off communities. The Amish, famous for their renunciation of a lot of technology, are embracing a lab that has been built in the centre of their community because their faith teaches them to "help their fellow man", recognizing that helping scientists better understand the genetic causes of diabetes, mental retardation, and some of the rarer diseases in their families, helps themselves as well as others. For a better understanding of the Amish and their approach to technology, Wired magazine ran an excellent story a few years back better illustrating why they are not just mindless kneejerk technophobes."
The Amish have tons of stuff other people want. They make highly desirable furniture and food, have nice houses(with a little remodeling) and fertile farm land. Not to mention a large workforce of able-bodied men and women. Man of them are successfull businessmen, and since they normally deal exclusively in cash probably a good amount of money. Theres plenty of things there I would like personally, especially if I could walk in there and take it for free. If I pick up a baseball bat, walk to the nearest "pacifist" (amish or otherwise) community, and demand their women for sex, their money and belonging, and that they immediatly vacate the property, they will either restrain me with violence or the threat of violence, or call the police to do it for them. If they were truly pacifist they would have to give in to my demands or passively resist them (which means standing there while I bludgeon them to death one at a time with my baseball bat) The same would be true if we had an entire country of amish and noone willing to use force to protect them and the attacker was an invading army. The fact that they rely on others to protect them (who they look down upon as inferior) is what makes pacifists parasites. Unless you live in a (particulary damp and nasty) cave and forage for food (that noone else might eat) you have things other people, people willing to use force, want. The military industrial complex just ups the stakes. But even if we did not do military research, and develop better weapons, someone else will and they will conquer us for lacking them. Do you think Russia just wanted to play nice in the Cold War? If they had developed a signifigant technological advantage we'd all be drinking vodka. History is full of examples of civilizations conquered by others who developed better weapons and methods of war. It is only recently that the stakes of waging war have grown so high (the possible complete nuclear annihalation of everyone involved) that wars of conquest have pretty much stopped. The smaller countries of the world do not worry about military only because the superpowers will protect them. Even then when one of those countries pisses off a superpower enough, the superpower squishes them flat (witness Iraq). The reality of this world is anyone incapable of protecting themselves, or hiring someone to protect them, is just waiting for someone to come buy and take everything they have, including their life.