If you know anything of
Posted by: Liz | From: July 29, 2004
If you know anything of my sad addiction to reality shows or my penchant for all things Amish, you might very well have guessed that this entry will be about “Amish in the City,” the new reality show where they take a bunch of Amish kids on Rumspringa and stick them with a bunch of horrible “city kids” in a Real Worldesque house and unleash the fun.My obsession with the Amish began with “The Devil’s Playground,” a documentary that did a very good job of showing all these different facets of the lives Amish teenagers live when they are allowed to live outside their religious community’s expectations. A lot of religions incorporate a specific time when young people dedicate themselves to their specific religion, where they have to make a conscious decision to follow its teachings. But I am in love with how hard of a push the Amish give their kids, making it that much stronger of a commitment if they return, and that much more meaningful if they don’t. I like that the line drawn is hard and fast. In any case, one of the most disturbing aspects of the documentary was the fact that the kids didn’t venture very far off for their Rumspringa. They often still lived at home and continued to wear the same clothes. But for those who broke out a little, the focus of their rebellion seemed to be on drinking, smoking, drugs, fondling, driving, playing with electronics, and dressing in “city” clothes. It seemed almost like a pre-packaged rebellion that was fun for a while, but quickly gets old. Next to a lifetime of getting high and drunk on your friend’s floor, the lifestyle you grew up with starts to look pretty good. The message is clear: either, or.
I became obsessed with the fact that these kids really thought they were living it up, while in fact they were only seeing the smallest fraction of the world. Didn’t any go backpacking around Europe? Take some art classes? Travel somewhere new? For the most part they didn’t. So while I loved the push, I wanted to see what would happen if they actually experience some of the enlightening things our “city” life can offer instead of only the sex and booze.
This is why I anticipated the new reality show and, of course, this is why it is so so disappointing. The city kids? Awful. The producers really picked the sluttiest, stupidest, most partying kids they could find (save one girl), and stuck these poor Amish kids with them. Ironically, the Amish kids proved they had better people skills for dealing with those different than them than the city kids, who literally wouldn’t open the door when the Amish came and then spent the next hour screaming “I can’t believe it!” while running around the house. Also the airhead vegan girl declared in all seriousness that she believed cows are from outer space.
Oh, yes.
Anyway, the most interesting thing that I hoped would happen—that the Amish kids would be able to experience something of art and philosophy and we would get to witness what happens when their steadfast ideals came up against these things—is probably not going to happen. These city kids are bodily extensions of getting drunk on a friend’s floor. Too bad for me.
Also one of the Amish kids looks exactly like Marshall from Alias, which is very weird, but sort of fun like, hey lookit Marshall playing that Amish kid!
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