Where Communism Works in America

Most of us know of the Amish. The Amish were made famous by the film "Witness", but a lesser known group, Hutterites, came to mind after a recent post about Communism in colonial times.

The Amish, Mennonites and Hutterites are Anabaptists. The reason they are called Anabaptists is something to think about because it reveals something about their character. Although they are devout Christians, they do not believe in baptizing children because children do not have the wisdom to decide something as serious as a religious conviction. Baptism is done much later in life with the consent of the individual.

Anabaptists have a sense of community that is truly breathtaking. You probably have seen how the Amish can build a barn in a day. Recently I read about an Amish farm home that burned down. These homes are huge because they have about nine kids per family. But about a hundred or so neighbors got together and rebuilt it in about three days. They are, apparently, not union workers. The Amish don't believe in health insurance but doctors love them because they always pay in cash. How do they do this when they have a family income of about $12,000? The neighbors are the insurance policy. If they can't scrape up enough cash from community donations they will sell their farm.

Hutterites, however, are a completely different story. Hutterites live in what can best be described as communes. They have large homes with several families per home. Each family has a separate bedroom but they share a common living area. The main meal of the day is in a communal dining hall where all members of the colony eat (about 50 to 150 people).

Hutterites are usually farmers but unlike the Amish, Hutterites do not shun modern technology. They use electricity and the latest John Deere farm equipment. The farms are large, up to about 10,000 acres and very productive. In South Dakota, Hutterite colonies produce about forty percent of that state's pork. This productivity often gets them in trouble with non-Hutterite competitors who resent it when find themselves failing in bad times as the Hutterites thrive. Hutterite buildings have been the victims of arson attacks.

Hutterites work for a salary of about six dollars a month. Everything else is provided by the colony and individuals have few personal possessions other than clothing. At the Oak Lane Colony in South Dakota, Robert Wipf is the assistant swine manager. Summing his lifestyle, he says, "I get paid nothing, but I get everything I need."

Like the Amish, they are intensely egalitarian and have strict rules about dress, grooming and behavior. Suspenders, no belt. Beards required, but no moustache allowed. They are very sensitive about personal property:

"Children learn early the principles of communal life. 'Our main purpose is to keep everyone together, ' said Lydia Waldner of Fairhaven Colony. 'Everyone has to get along with each other--not thinking one should have more than the other. That's the biggest thing for our children.' Ownership, in the Hutterite view, divides people into the haves and the have-nots; that division creates resentment and envy. I remember four orphaned coyote pups that were found by Lydia's son Luke. He kept one himself and gave the other three to friends. The coyotes were obviously fun for the colony children, a chance to have pets and learn about wild animals.But Lydia Waldner worried. 'Some children have one, and some don't. The pups are creating conflicts. Children are competing to play with them. We should let them go.' She saw the coyotes as a disruptive element. I remembered that the Hutterite dogs I had seen at other colonies were not children's pets but work dogs used to herd sheep and cattle."

The Anabaptist fear of individuality means that getting a picture of them is like pulling teeth. Somehow Laura Wilson, above, was able to charm the minister into allowing some photos, but if you should take a snapshot of an Amish man and it appears in the local paper, chances are you have gotten him into serious trouble. He will have to convince his bishop that he didn't see the camera or there was no time to turn his head. It's like the whole community is in the witness protection program.

Photos tend to make celebrities, celebrities can be prideful and think they are more important than others. Think Sean Penn. Or think of a picture of Saddam everywhere you turn. Be careful, Laura, you don't want to become another Leni Riefenstahl.

When a Hutterite colony grows to a population of about 150 it outgrows the land and the colony splits. Half of them leave and establish a new colony, electing a new minister. I'm going to leave the obvious and disturbing comparison to a beehive up to you. The only limitation to the growth of the Anabaptists is the availability of farmland. Some Hutterites and Anabaptists are getting involved in manufacturing to help keep their families together.

The Hutterites trace their beginnings to a moment in the spring of 1528 when a small band of religious refugees from the Tyrol passing through Moravia, now part of Czechoslovakia, spread a cloak on the ground and placed all they owned upon it. By doing this they affirmed their decision to follow the example of the Apostles as explained in the Bible: "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need" (Acts of the Apostles 2:44-45). Communalism is the distinguishing principle by which all Hutterites have lived for nearly 475 years.

All this all sounds like a Marxist's wet dream. So then what's the difference between a Hutterite Colony and, say, the Soviet Union? Well, for one thing, a few hundred million people. Some Hutterite colonies have had bad ministers who caused the colony to fail. But since colonies are limited in size, the damage is minimal. The remaining colonies learn from the experience. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, was like this great big colony that had Charles Manson for a minister.

But are Hutterites communists? Well, not really. After all, they are capitalists who do well at competing with other capitalists. Their communities may sound like hippie communes but most of them are related to each other so it's more a large extended family than a commune. Then why did I post this? Why should we heathens care about these quaint little Pilgrims?

Because the Amish and Hutterites could save western civilization from extinction.

Here's what I'm talking about. California is fast becoming a Central American country. At least one political movement is threatening to turn the southwest into a big Hispanic state and exclude all whites. But bring up illegal immigration and there's always some pinhead who says something like, "But who's going to pick the crops. You'll pay five bucks for a head of lettuce?".

Pat Buchanan warns in his book, "The Death of the West", how immigration and a dying population threaten to lower America and Europe to third world status. Pat's remedy for this is lower taxes for parents. Like peeing on a forest fire. I've got a more radical solution.

The Amish make lots of babies and the only reason we aren't up to our eyeballs in Amish is that they've run out of land. When that happens the kids leave the community, replenishing our population.

About a third of this country is land that belongs to the Federal Government and a lot of it is land that could be cleared for farming. The biggest gripe that Amish and Hutterites have is high taxes and the high cost of land. So we pass a law allowing the sale of this land as farm land under covenant agreement such so that no motorized vehicles can be used. That should keep the Greenies happy and the Amish will buy up that land in an instant. Change tax laws so that no property taxes will be levied on any farm land. While we're at it, get rid of crop price supports and subsidies so that corporations aren't paid for not farming so they'll sell their land to the Hutterites.

In a few generations we'll have all the baby-makers and lettuce pickers we'll ever need.

Why is this better than winking at illegals and allowing unchecked immigration? Anabaptists are pacifists. They won't pick up a gun to save their life, they won't vote or go near a lawyer unless their very existence is threatened and they won't knock on your door in the morning when you've got a hangover to ask if you know Jesus. Our courts are not clogged with Angry Amish street gang members and no one has ever heard of an Amish serial killer. If an Amish man ever gets in trouble with the law it makes national news as a man-bites-dog story. They are pretty much mind-your-own-business types. All they do is grow crops, raise farm animals and have babies. That's all they do, they make living things.

And then after they outgrow their land again, we will benefit as their kids move into the general population.

But does that mean America will be in danger of being overpopulated? No, not at all. The reason we aren't having as many children as we used to is simply because of an excess of culture, TV, movies, sports, books, video games -- we've got better things to do than change diapers. People who suppress culture, like the Anabaptists or Muslims tend to spawn a lot of kids because -- well, that's all they have for entertainment. American culture will still be here and we'll need it too because we need creative, unfettered people to make all those clever bombs and things to keep the rest of the world at bay.

Another way of looking at it is that the Anabaptists are born into their lifestyle. Nobody gets converted to be a Hutterite or Amishman. Mennonites are a different story, but that isn't such an austere existence.

But only a small percentage of Amish children leave now that they are branching into manufacturing. So it is remarkable how flexible humans really are.

I think communism fails because it is an inherently unstable monoculture. All it takes is for one evil person to take advantage of the system.

Do you mean 40,000 kitchens a year? That must be a big family or they have a lot of other employees. I think the $12,000 figure applies to the average farmer.

I also get the impression from my research that a favorite sport of the Amish is lying to overly inquisitive Yankees.

Terrible, though, that they confuse the IRS. Tsk.

"Why not point out that the successful American communes predominantly religious based, and that Communism eschews Christianity as well as Judasm?"

Yeah, I thought about that, but then some wise guy is going to say, "Communism is a religion and what about the Cubans, they're Catholic?"

But you are right, Western Civilization was pretty much created by Christians. It is only appropriate they should save it.

So we pass a law allowing the sale of this land as farm land under covenant agreement such so that no motorized vehicles can be used. Ever see a Amish farm, they have Deere tractors, but the non-Amish farm hands operate and repair them.

Your piece has very disturbing racialist undertones. Mostly by a poor choice of words, using the word "spawn" to describe family growth, etc.

You are, and most Americans are, confused between the ideologies of Communitarianism and Communism. Communitarianism comes from the groups you described, and Quakers, Shakers, and more recently Catholic Liberacion clergy in South America. Many of those illegal aliens you (and many, including myself to some degree) fret over, were raised in Mexico and Gautemala by Liberacion ideology, which is the leader in the Communitarian ideology as far as increasing numbers of believers/followers. As far as opening up the national lands, I'm all for it, but the East Asians gevernments might not wnt anyone to disturb their Federal reserve debt collateral.

What is disturbing? The Hutterites practice the communal model while the Amish are community oriented. No Amish guy is going to walk into your house in the middle of the night to use "communal" property. The Mormons are more Hutterite than Amish through their purposely designed involvement in each other's personal lives.
In all the world only America provides a framework where such diverse interests can co-exist side by side. Churches, temples and mosques manage to share city blocks here without nary a person feeling he has to blow himself up. It's all about Freedom.

I think communism fails because it is an inherently unstable monoculture. All it takes is for one evil person to take advantage of the system.

Your article mentioned that the communes split up after they reach 150 people. There's a lot of research that shows that the average person can keep track of relationships with at most 150 people. Above that size, an organization becomes too bureaucratic, and too many of the interactions become arms-length & impersonal, which erodes the constant, personal sense of being accountable for your actions. This is why large-scale communism can never work. IMO.

True communism allows slackers, for a period of time (which destroys the ideal), to suck off the work of others.

Eventually, the "others" ask them to leave. Which again proves communism is a fraud. Why? Just look at how they defend their utopia...they'll tell you communism would work perfectly if it wasn't for the failings of their fellow humans.

DUH!

Even lesbians on a communal farm in Mississippi get that concept: Produce or get out as they sell their beaded jewelry and homemade honey at the New Age store in town...and through the cataloug...website...toll free number...

Regarding the Amish use of non-Amish helpers: This seems to be a growing trend, especially in manufacturing, that bothers me and I hope they know what they are doing. The danger is cultural osmosis as they associate more with the outside world. But, there are a lot of different Amish churches each with different ways of doing things.

On Communitarianism and the Liberacion clergy, you're right I am confused. I see little in common between Hutterites and that of South American rebels. Is there such a thing as "Communitarian ideology"? If so, it must not work below certain latitudes if they need to come north and climb over the fence to get work.

As far as the collateral for the Federal Debt goes, maybe that's the key here. Let them foreclose on all that land and then they'll have to sell it off to the Hutterites.

You don't see the Jeffersonian racialist "yeoman farmer" ideal scaled up to a Communitarian level in the concept of having certain religious groups controlling farm production to limit the ability of immigrants to acquire jobs in this country? I agree with the reduction of farm subsidies, but that's a corporate vs. citizen owner/operator/farmer argument, whether the citizens are Southern Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Anglicans or whatever.

And what of this:In a few generations we'll have all the baby-makers and lettuce pickers we'll ever need.

That is Orwellian, and uses religion as a manipulative tool of control. What fundamental difference will there be in 40 years between baby-making farm wives of Anabaptist communes and babymaking farmwives of Catholic Church communities? They would both be made to serve the pampered princesses of the consumerist class, who won't reproduce. This is better then our current fate of Third World invasion? No, it's the same result, except the color of the underclasses' skin pigment is different.

On that note, I support Rep. Tancredo's stances by and by, and want to see a rational immigration policy come into law, funded and vigorously enforced. Bringing in anti-immigrant rhetoric reminiscent of the Anti-Irish rhetoric of 2 centuries ago is a discredit to the public argument.

If you want to evaluate this rationally maybe it's best to forget about rhetoric and look at what is actually being proposed. I say my proposal is the least coercive than the traditional approach. It is simply land reform. Why is land reform bad if you do it in America? Controlling illegal immigration via border control and harassment of employers is coercive -- it requires men with guns making threats. Allowing Amish and Hutterites to expand their numbers will solve the problem without coercion.

Amish and Hutterites are not an "underclass" and they are not victims. If you don't believe me, ask them. They will tell you that they feel more fortunate than you. But ask the same question of the typical migrant farm worker and you will hear a list of grievances and threats to take back "the land the gringo's stole". This is not about skin pigment but about creating a civilized people. The Anabaptists do that better than anyone.

I'm sorry if anyone doesn't like this rhetoric but Western Civilization is headed for the rocks and we need think about what created it and how we can save it.

"Comparing Hutterites with communists was slightly mischievous on my part, though. The point is that communism is invariably evil and Hutterites are at the other extreme. "

I agree. Commune living is in no way communism.

It is an interesting theory with the Hutterites and Amish, but if we all lived like they did we all would still be riding horses to work and going to church in our buggies. We could never be a superpower, which would be OK, as long as, we were never invaded.

We would have been invaded years ago, no doubt.

"but if we all lived like they did we all would still be riding horses to work and going to church in our buggies. We could never be a superpower, which would be OK, as long as, we were never invaded. "

Yes, Auggy, this is exactly my point in the final paragraph. Liberals talk a lot about diversity but they only have a vague idea about why it is good.

Compare a nation to a living body. If all the cells in the body did the same thing, the body would die. We need all kinds of cells, but they need to be the right kind. You can not take just any cell from outside the body and transplant into a body without serious risk. All it takes is a tiny amount of a toxic bacteria to kill you. Likewise, cells from your body can not live long outside it. The Amish have tried living all over the world but they thrive mostly in North America.

I say we need the Anabaptists as much as they need us.

I also get the impression from my research that a favorite sport of the Amish is lying to overly inquisitive Yankees.

They don't lie. They just guard their privacy. You can't lie if you don't speak.

As for the bit about Yankees, you have it totally backwards. Robert E. Lee himself was profoundly confused by the Amish and Pennsylvanians in general, as that state contributed more volunteers on the war against slavery than any other state in the Union, Amish included. THe Amish, like most other Yankees, always considered slavery to be the height of sloth and self indulgence.

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