They Say No to Electricity, Reject Cars, Decline Internet, and Keep Schools, Farms, and Entire Towns Running Solely on Human and Community Labor: Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites Have Preserved for Centuries a Way of Life That Challenges Everything We Call the Modern World

They Live Without Electricity, Cars, Internet, or Banks by Their Own Choice. Amish, Menonites, and Hutterites Maintain Schools, Farms, and Their Own Economy in the 21st Century Challenging Modern Life.

In 2026, humanity is hyperconnected, dependent on smartphones, power grids, satellites, artificial intelligence, and digital platforms for basic tasks such as studying, working, shopping, or communicating. In this context, it may seem impossible to imagine entire communities living without electricity, without cars, without internet, without television, and without cell phones, not out of poverty, but by religious, cultural, and philosophical choice.

This is the case for the Amish, Menonites, and Hutterites, Christian groups of Anabaptist origin that have maintained a way of life based on simplicity, manual labor, rural living, family presence, and community self-sufficiency since the 16th century. They have not disconnected from the world—they have never connected in the way we know.

Today, while large cities compete for renewable energy, 5G expansion, green hydrogen, and AI chips, these communities operate a parallel society, functional, stable, with their own economy, and without dependence on the state, which draws the attention of anthropologists, sociologists, economists, and cultural resilience specialists.

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Historical Origins: A Break with Modernity Before Modernity

The Amish, Menonites, and Hutterites emerged in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Central Europe. Persecuted for not accepting infant baptism and insisting on independent and egalitarian communities, many migrated between the 17th and 19th centuries to North America, where they found ideal rural territories to live their way of life.

Amish

They emerged in the 17th century in Switzerland under the leadership of Jakob Amman.
They predominantly migrated to the USA in the 18th century.
Today, they are concentrated in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, with a rapidly growing population due to high birth rates.

Menonitas

They derive from the followers of Menno Simons (16th century).
They are the most internally diverse group: ranging from ultratraditional communities to moderate groups that use electricity.

Hutteritas

Founded by Jakob Hutter in the 16th century.
They stand out for their communal collective living: work, income, and property are shared.

These three groups inherited a worldview that does not measure progress by technology, but by social cohesion, religious discipline, and agricultural autonomy.

Why Do They Reject Electricity, Cars, and Internet?

The rejection is neither irrational nor anti-scientific. For these communities, technology is not neutral: it changes behaviors, creates dependency, and can generate internal inequality. Their question has never been “does this make life easier?” but “does this destroy the community?”.

For example:

Electricity connected to the public grid can bring television, internet, cell phones, and individual entertainment—which, for them, weakens community life.
Private cars allow young people to move away from the communities, leading to family dispersion.
Internet opens doors to individualism, consumerism, and external culture, which clashes with the religious and social values of the group.

Additionally, these communities value manual labor, self-sufficiency, circular economy, family closeness, and spiritual life, which contrasts directly with the urban pace based on productivity, speed, and consumption.

Life Without Electricity: What Is the Daily Life of a Society That Rejects the Electric Circuit

It is common to imagine that living without electricity means misery, but in the case of the Amish and some Menonites and Hutterites it is the opposite: life without modern energy requires social organization, self-sufficiency, and technological ingenuity.

Sources of Light

Kerosene lantern
Candles
Gas lamps
Strategically positioned windows

Refrigeration

Natural ice
Underground houses
Ammonia refrigeration (some groups allow)

Kitchen

Wood stoves
Brick ovens
Propane stoves

Communication

No cell phone, no internet, no television
Use of letters, messengers, or in-person visits

Transportation

Horse and buggy for the Amish
Bicycles in some Menonite communities
Tractors without rubber tires to avoid “excessive” mechanization

Education

Education is community-based, in-person, and practical. Children learn:

Arithmetic
Reading and writing
Agriculture
Cabinet-making
Sewing
Home management

Unlike modern schools, there are no computers, screens, or devices.

Self-Sufficient Economy: How Do These Communities Survive Without State and Consumer Capitalism

There is a common misconception that these groups live in “total isolation.” This is not true. They interact economically with the world, but in a structurally limited way.