Nuestra economía en el aire se ha transformado en una caída mortal, y nos disponemos a traerla debajo. El problema es que todos estamos bajo ella, y así tenemos que traerla debajo con el menor sufrimiento posible para nuestra tierra y nuestra gente. No sé cómo puede hacerse, y me inclino a pensar que nadie lo sabe. No puedes confiadamente traer algo abajo si no supiste qué hacías cuando lo elevaste.
(WB)
And so: Might it not be that the displaced persons were needed by their families and their neighbors, not only for their economic assistance to the home place and household, but for their love and understanding, for their help and comfort in times of trouble? Of the Americans known to me, only the Amish have dealt with such questions openly and conscientiously as families, neighbors, and communities. The Ainish are Amish by choice. There is no requirement either to subscribe to the religion or to stay in the community. The Amish have their losses and their failures, as one would expect. At present some of their communities have become involved in the failure of the larger economy. But their families and communities nevertheless are held together by principle and by the deliberate rejection of economic and technological innovations that threaten them. With the Amish—as once with the rest of us—a family member or a neighbor is by definition needed, and is needed not according to any standard of usefulness or any ratio of cost and price, but according to the absolute standards of kindness, mutuality, and affection. Unlike the rest of us, the Amish have remembered that the best, most dependable, most kind safety net or social security or insurance is a coherent, neighborly, economically sound, local community.
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