Through the Distributist Review I found this interesting article. I would like to highlight this part:
To the outsider, the Amish lifestyle can appear to be one of deprivation and austerity, prompting us to ask: What’s kept the culture alive? And can it continue? The answer may lie in the culture’s central, guiding value. Called gelassenheit, it is one of humility and selflessness, a surrendering to God first and community second, with self-interest always coming in last. “It can be argued that gelassenheit is the key feature that has helped sustain the Amish and acted as a compass,” says McConnell. ìItís not that their culture isn’t changing, it’s how the sensibility of gelassenheit directs those calibrations.
A spirit of selflessness begins with the family, where divorce is taboo and large, multigenerational households are universal.
What caught my attention was the sense of wonder that an austere culture would survive so long, and if it could continue. I realize that I live in somewhat of a bubble detached from mainstream thinking, but is it really not obvious that an 
austere, simple society has more staying power than a decadent and hedonistic society? One society lives well within its means, one greatly exceeds its means. It’s not climate science.
The description of gelassenheit comes across as if it were some kind of unheard of principle. The word might be unfamiliar, but the idea was the standard in Western society until relatively recent times. And, hold on to your hats, divorce is taboo! What strange creatures these Amish are. I guess there is no other religion that forbids divorce. Even multigenerational homes have only become a rarity in the last seventy five years or so (at least based on my own anecdotal evidence).
What is impressive about the Amish isn’t the concept of gelassenheit itself, which is really just common sense, but their steadfast adherence to it. When the rest of the West caved in to the cult of individuality and materialism, they stuck to their guns (ironic since they are strict pacifists). Having grown up in Lancaster PA, I often wondered how it was that they preserved their ways when everything was changing around them. I suspect the close knit, closed community was the biggest factor. In earlier times I believe many Amish communities strictly refused to socialize with the “English” (i.e. non-Amish) barring an emergency. Nowadays I don’t think the rules are as strict, but they are still pretty introverted within their own communities. Basically, they cut themselves off from wider society around them, but maintained a substantial internal community.
Now you know where this is going. I often find myself wondering if it is necessary for Catholics to take the Amish approach (not regarding technology but certainly regarding self-sufficiency and modest living). Whenever this topic comes up, someone brings up the passage from the Early Church Fathers, (I don’t remember it exactly) where it was said that Christians don’t live segregated from the rest of society. And someone will say, “we are supposed to be in the world to be salt for the Earth,” and such like. But a “trad town” is still “in the world” and it can still have connections to the exterior world that make it an example and witness to our faith. I’m not talking about The Village here. Ancient monasteries had a significant influence on the surrounding communities despite being cloistered.
Most varieties of protestantism are basically individualist religions. But the 
Catholic faith is a communal religion. Our Lord established it as such and I would argue that the Liturgy presupposes strong communal integration. But that has almost entirely disappeared in the modern world. The Amish maintained that communal integration, and they are able to persist in their ways. Catholics went the way of the world and we are falling off a cliff. Is it perhaps time we rejected the world? Raise the bastions instead of razing them?
Aside from the moral corrosiveness of our society, it is becoming increasingly difficult just to live a humane life. The intrusion of government bureaucracy into every facet of life has become smothering. The “safety net” is more of a safety cage. The way we are encouraged to put our life on the “career track” and to plan and schedule everything, even our children. I could go on and on. It goes well beyond the few things mentioned above. The education system, the economy, our food supply, political system, and so forth. And it effects every one, Catholics and non-Catholics alike (yes, trad Catholics too). Maybe I’ll try to do a post summarizing what I see as the problems with all those things, but it is too much to go into here. My point is that modern world tries to make us live more like zoo animals than like men and women. We are “cared for” by the powers that be, but we don’t really live. But if you are going to live like a Catholic, it is helpful to be able to live like a man. And that is why I often wonder if it is not time for Catholics to consider the “Amish Option.” Opt out of this upside down society and show people a better way of life. If that’s even possible. Maybe that’s not the answer, but I think it is worth considering.
For reading that inspired some of these thoughts I highly recommend Anthony Esolen’s article, The Unquiet Men.
