WEDESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 2017: NOTE TO FILE
WaterShed0005
For the Progressive Amish
Eric Lee, A-SOCIATED PRESS
TOPICS: COOPERATIVE, FROM THE WIRES, SUSTAINABLE PROSPERITY
Abstract: The Amish are pre-adapted to low-power agrarian living with few industrial inputs. They may send technical advisors to other watersheds. They cannot, however, export surplus population, and so only the Progressive Amish could be Federation. The traditional Amish would likely not be able to defend themselves from other non-Federation outliers because, unlike the Amish, some would be empire-builders as in an unmanaged system empire-building is selected for as evidenced by prior ten thousand years of human history.
TUCSON (A-P) — Following the general principles of watershed management design involves going with what works, and Amish farmers know how to farm and live the low-power life. Expanding population forces the Amish to purchase farmland from the non-Amish. Progressive Amish decided to pool resources to purchase an entire watershed to be managed by Amish principles.
Policies for Climax and Descent
When approximately 10,000 Amish applications have been accepted representing perhaps 1,000 households, all households will liquidate their assets and accept donations to fund the purchase of WS0005 land within a region selected that allows for other near-future watershed management units. For self-defense, an Amish Militia will defend the watershed and will come to the aid of any other watershed, even non-Amish ones, that may be attacked. The Militia will provide interwatershed transport of trade items and people during times of peace, and defend to the death the Amish Principles of WS0005..
Property
Land use management will involve selecting 20% of the watershed for support of humans and their mutualist plants and animals. The area will be divided equitably among the 1,000 Founding Families, whose wealth purchased the land. All real estate will be privately owned by the Founding Families. Each head of household will follow Amish principles as the Elders of the church determine them to be. To support the Founding Families, refugee Amish migrants will be allowed entry to refugee camps where they will learn how to live a truly Progressive Amish life based on progressive principles. While living in the refugee camps, acolytes will work in:
- Food production, processing, preservation areas
- Medical, dental, health clinics
- Educational areas
- Recreational areas
- Livestock areas
Within the watershed area selected, prior property owners who are not Progressive Amish will be given enough money to agree to move on and will be prayed for by Amish who take turns walking back and forth in front of their property. Thus, by the will of God, within a few years all real estate will be owned by the Founding Families.
Food
If the long-term carrying capacity of a watershed requires 3 hectares per person and 30,000 hectares are available to be managed sustainably as an agro-ecosystem, then the carrying capacity is 10,000 humans. This is why the initial population may be 10,000 Amish living in the 1,000 Founding Families. Amish refugees who may be allowed to live in Amish refugee camps will work to support the Founding Family farms. The Founding Families, in addition to buying the land, will stockpile dry foods and store them for 30 to 50 years so the excess population can be fed. The dry food would be processed as needed to support the surplus population. The watershed's ability to grow fresh foods would increase by the hard work of all. Some of the family members will be doctors, denialists, preachers, and other specialists. The remaining will be hired hands to assist specialists and work on family farms. If it be the will of God that not enough food can be grown no matter how hard each Amish works, the surplus Amish may emigrate to another watershed, founding new watershed management units as needed.
Birth Control
All refugees, including all Founding Family members, agree to let God determine if and when a woman becomes with child. Early marriage for all will be, per tradition, obligatory. God's will shall be divined by the elders and couples will be told when God want them to have children. All will abstain from specified sexual behaviors and practice progressive Amish sex. [To apply for admission to the Federation, applicants must propose policies that might actually work as assessed by the Federation's Supreme Court of Evidence and Reason. Despite strong warnings, the application of the Progressive Amish was approved as their plan to manage their population could work. A watershed that failed to feed its children would be declared a failed state. Children, as Federation citizens, would be given refugee status, but adults would not, otherwise their failure would be selected for, which is not Federation policy.]
Housing
Each refugee center will include a construction area for making the elements of a house. Construction materials would be imported by the Founding Families. Individual refugees will work part-time to help build homes for those who had been in the refugee camp longest. With experience gained, each would oversee construction of their family home they would be responsible for maintaining. Parents will oversee construction of homes for their children to insure they last a lifetime.
Transportation
Primary mobility will be by walking. Buggy technology will allow for long distance travel from the outer areas of a watershed to central service areas within a day or two. Transport of materials will be by horse drawn vehicle.
Education
Children will have access to Rosetta Bliss and Encyclopedia Bliss as required by the Constitution of the United Federation of Watersheds, but all will be encouraged to listen to Elders read the Bible and share the word of the Progressive Amish Way. Those who apply to the Federation Academy will be shunned by the community.
High Value Technology
Information is of the highest value and books requiring reading are few. Metal and metal working, leather and leather making is valued by the Progressive Amish.
Cooking
The ability to cook food is a practical necessity. Cooking will be by use of synfuels.
Food Preservation
Solar dehydrators have a potential to preserve foods. Pickling is practical and canning of foods is possible using wood stoves.
High Value Services
Repair facilities are needed to maintain such technology as the Amish need. There will be no consumer devices. The level of services that could be provided in a low power society of enough will be what the Amish Elders have found is needed.
Recreational Drug Use Policy
All refugees and their descendants will not use any recreational drugs. To help all understand their place in the SYSTEM, all will be taught in Amish schools and attend the Amish church.
Local Exchange
Needed consumption will be distributed by barter of goods and services.
Local Government
Following Federation determined policies is required to be a member watershed entitled to benefits and protection. That residents can claim 20% of a watershed for use by humans, their domestic plants and animals... is a given. Local governance, being a local affair, will be as the Elders decree.
Note: The Progressive Amish plan to export surplus population by acquiring additional watersheds could work for a time. The Federation does not allow a watershed to manage its population by exporting surplus population to 'somewhere'. No watershed is obligated to take in refugees and even if all were, all watersheds on Earth would have to become Amish in less than 220 years assuming a steady 5% growth rate in Amish population. Federation scientists would urge the Amish to ask, 'And then what?'
When there are no new watersheds to occupy, the Amish plan would fail. Population could not be exported and the Amish's 20% would become overpopulated with increasing loss of environmental productivity within their 20%. Aid from other Federation watersheds would be provided only if the Amish agreed to modify their behavior.
To preserve their belief-based way of life, they would be forced to secede from the Federation, loosing Federation protection, trade, and educational benefits. They could then exploit all resources within their watershed, for a time. If they declared war on and defeated the Federation, and Earth became Amish and they were not able to export population to other planets in the Milky Way, then a dramatic increase in death rate of Amish and readily consumable life on the planet would occur as all possible planetary resources available to them were consumed.
Compared to technoindustrial humans, the ability of the Amish to consume planetary resources would be much less, so after passing of the Amish Empire, life on Earth could largely recover in about ten million years as new species evolved to replace the widespread extinction that occurred during the pre-Amish Empire (the Euro-Sino Empire).
The Amish lack the technology needed to destroy Earth's life-support system. If Amish revolutionaries had conquered the planet in the 18th century, Nature would have been little affected, would have provided negative feedback loops to control the Amish population by the 21th century, and remaining Amish would be able to pulse their population again after a few centuries of environmental restoration (of soil fertility, forests....). The Anthropocene extinction event would not have exceeded that of the late Cretaceous had the Industrial Revolution, thanks to Amish activism, not occurred.
