posted
(the dang Search function is acting up on me, so pardons if this has been discussed lately)
Has anyone seen the documentary The Devil's Playground?
I watched it last night, it's fascinating. It's about a period ("rumspringa") in the life of Amish teens when they take a break from Amish life and decide whether to be be baptised (Amish don't believe in infant baptism) and to commit to Amish ways. It starts when Amish teens are 16, and can last for a few years or more. 90% of Amish teens rejoin the Amish community after "rumspringa."
The documantary shows the extremes that Amish teens can go to -- getting drunk, doing drugs (dealing them too), partying, having boyfriends/girlfriends, etc. And doing all the more mainstream U.S. stuff -- driving cars, watching TV, playing video games, the boys dressing up like regular teenagers (very bizarre -- it seems sacriligious to see Amish youth dressing and acting like dumb teenagers).
It's a good documentary, fascinating subject, leaves me wanting to know more about Amish life. (I haven't watched it with the audio commentary track, I'll do that soon, that's supposed to give a lot more info about Amish life). The issues are fascinating -- the contrast between Amish life and modern life, the choices Amish teens have to make -- back to community life as they know it, with its pluses and minuses, or to keep to the modern world, with its pluses and minuses, while getting cut off from friends and family... I think it's (mostly) admirable that Amish life gives teens a chance to make up their minds... and I found myself wondering how much of the empty hedonism of "rumspringa" causes teens to want to return to Amish life -- if "rumspringa" wasn't as extreme, would the teens be less interested in returning to the familiarity of Amish life?
(If I was an Amish teen going through "rumspringa," I think one of the hardest things would be to give up popular books and music -- to read Harry Potter books, and know that to return to Amish life would mean never getting to read the other books in the series...)
Anyway, yeah, fascinating film, highly recommended, here's a link:
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