Wow, Tolworthy, thank you for such a thorough and informative post. I was totally unaware of all of that. Very insightful.

A writer doesn't have to share the qualities of his characters to write them. A writer doesn't have to be a sociopath to write a convincing serial killer, so conversely a writer doesn't have to be compassionate or have empathy to write a convincing character who does.  Just because Card's characters might have appealing traits, doesn't mean Card himself shares them. 

-M

There are many people who divide the world into us and them, or even people and "not" people, who are quite compassionate and empathetic towards the "in group" (us, people, etc.), but completely callous, apathetic, or even hateful to the "out group" (them, not people, etc.). 

Card could easily draw on his compassion and empathy of his family or friends and channel that into his characters and not have an ounce of empathy for those he considers them, and not have it affect his portrayal of empathetic characters at all. Part of being a writer/storyteller is being able to write characters who are unlike you. 

-M

The thing is, the whole point of "Ender's Game" is that by demonizing our enemies as monsters, we ourselves turn into the monster. So... I mean, yeah...

It's basically PR plus Game of Thrones. Anyone interested in PR should look behind the curtain at Mormonism. it's fascinating. Warning: another long post!

I find it fascinating how wealthy organisations control their image. Back in the 1990s Gordon B Hinckley was church president, and he'd spent his whole life in the PR arm of the church. He went on a media blitz, giving high profile interviews where he denied old doctrines (his famous quote was "I don't know that we teach that"). Behind the scenes lots of very smart and very well paid people worked to mainstream the church. Gladys Knight was their biggest coup.

I don't know the exact details of how they wooed Knight, but I do remember when there was the rumour that an actual non-Mormon archaeologist was possibly interested in the church (for social reasons). Mormon archaeology is embarrassing, but people join a religion for many different reasons. Behind the scenes all the most senior academics were desperate to get this person. The church is basically a gigantic sales organisation: every young man is expected to spend two years as a full time unpaid salesman (i.e. serve a mission) and that sets the tone for life. Selling the church is what they do: it is their life. It is why the church has continued to grow (at least until the Internet age) despite toxic beliefs and toxic history (polygamy, racism, at last one massacre, being on the wrong side of every social advance, etc). The Mormon sales machine is a wonder to behold.

I am reminded of Sideshow Bob in the Simpsons: he has "die Bart, die" tattooed on his chest, but was able to convince a jury that he was a really nice person and "die bart, die" was an innocent German phrase, "the Bart, the". Or perhaps a better real world example is Julie Andrews
, star of Mary Poppins. Disney recently produced its whitewashed "saving Mr Banks", a PR piece to show that Disney was a very nice man and P L Travers ended up loving the movie. Yet as far as I can tell, Travers simply needed the money and wen to her grave hating what the company did to her book. Never mind, the Disney version is the one that sticks. I heard a recent interview where Andrews praised the movie, saying it was really interesting and she didn't know that - she completely bought the revised story. Now surely she of all people should know, right? Not really. She was young, and busy and was hired for her acting and her voice, not her investigatory journalism.

Like Andrews, Knight is getting older and wants a happy life. Whereas she obviously experienced racism when younger she obviously never had bad experiences with Mormons, and now that she is old these really nice people treat her like royalty and say all these nice things: why not believe them?

The easiest part for the church is controlling information inside the church: the vast majority of Mormons are now either unaware of past racism or are convinced it was a minor technical thing and the church was always progressive. Meanwhile, every Mormon is schooled in being friendly. So that is the image people see when they meet Mormons. And while it is easy to be cynical, a church full of millions of nice people is not necessarily a bad thing.

As for controlling information to outsiders, that starts with controlling inside information. If you know a few Mormons and they are all nice people, and none of them believes those bad things, it is easy to believe that the church is misunderstood. Add to that a lot of money spent on PR: at the same time they are funding anti-gay campaigns they spend millions on the "I am a Mormon" advertising campaigns showing gays and feminists in the church. (Due to a recent change it is now technically possible to be gay in the church as long as you don't talk about it or actually have sexual relations.) Finally you have an army of Internet savvy members ready to edit every Wikipedia article and reply to every online post. Try saying anything bad about the church and a dozen genuinely nice people will appear to say it is not like that and would you like some cookies? As for Search Engine Optimisation, Mormons pretty much wrote the book.

Regarding SEO it took them while to get it right, but the church has pretty much unlimited funds an a very tech savvy and obedient membership: it is no coincidence that the NSA data centers are often located in Utah.

Another interesting angle is the personality battles at the top of Mormonism. This is politics at its finest: on the surface the Mormon leadership is in complete unity, and the way they are chosen ensures there is deference behind closed doors as well. Any Mormon with business skills is tracked since about the age of 30, using software specially designed for the purpose. They are then watched carefully as they rise through the ranks, and only the safest of safe hands ever gets to the top of the greasy pole. But if you watch carefully even then there are basically four groups in gentle competition:

1. The guy at the top is nearly always a schmoozer. He genuinely believes the church is all sweetness and light, he is personable, kind, and very likeable. He and people like him will "love bomb" any celebrity who might be susceptible for whatever reason. The current president, Thomas S.Monson, was famous for never saying anything except folksy stories and never doing anything except smiling. You can be sure that Gladys Knight will consider him a personal friend: she will "know" that all the bad stories are unfair because she has heard what the church "really" believes it from the horse's mouth.

2.Then we have the new generation of media savvy folk. The king of these is Dieter Uchdorff, the darling of the younger generation. He is a handsome ex airline pilot, an urbane ans silver tongued German (so the church can say "see, we're not all from Utah!") who speaks about inclusivity and understanding. Everyone calls him the silver fox.

3. Then we have the old guard of hard liners, led by Boyd K Packer. He will be the one behind the anti-gay crusade, and will resist any change. Gradually the church is becoming more and more corporate, so new leaders are chosen purely for their management skills and these doctrinaire types are slowly dying off, but it might take another 30 years.
Because...


4. With the rise of the Internet the real power is now with the faceless bureaucrats in the Church Office Building (COB), endlessly crunching numbers and issuing carefully worded press releases. The official leaders (there are 15: a presidency of 3 plus 12 apostles) are all in their eighties or older, and do not understand the Internet. But they are gradually learning that the less they say the better. So General Conference is now a series of speeches on "be nice to people" while official spokesmen tackle all the sensitive stuff. The young suits in the COB have to say "yes" to everything the 15 say, but when you have a thousand young and very smart people running a multi billion dollar organisation for 15 elderly men who are somewhat out of touch, they find ways.

The suits in the COB know that the church pulls in 8 billion dollars a year and they plan 50 years ahead. they know that the number one risk to that income is bad publicity. When word got around that an actual genuine black female celebrity was friends with somebody high up in the church you canimagine the buzz. How would they gently pull her in? Get the best leaders involved! Gently does it! A Meal? A visit? A gift? Are we pushing too hard? How can we insulate her from XYZ? Think of manipulating Truman in The Truman Show and you'll have the idea. I was once a missionary. Missionaries spend hours planning every contact with potential converts, anticipating every problem, sweating over every tiny "accidental" contact. Working with Knight would have been that on steroids. Not necessarily cynically, perhaps not even consciously - Mormons are conditioned to try to convert others without even thinking. But make no mistake, she would be the top priority for a lot of very experienced people. Gently, gently does it. Boy, what a catch!

Sorry, I am rambling now. Maybe I should stick to comics.

The Mormon aspect occurred to me as well, but I didn't feel equipped to address the matter; I'm glad tolworthy did.

As it happens, a friend of mine (via correspondence only; we've probably never been within 1,000 miles of each other) from Lovecraft fandom from waaaay back -- circa 1974 -- was raised Mormon, did the whole missionary thing, subsequently came out as gay in very flamboyant manner, got excommunicated from the church ... & devoutly wants to be let back in the tent, as it were.

Can't say I understanding such thinking, but then I seem to lack whatever gene it is that makes religion bearable, much less appealing.

Tolworthy has done a fabulous job of explaining a lot about the Mormon Church and I don't have a lot to add.  I live in Southern Idaho and anywhere east of Boise the Mormon Church is paramount politically and culturally.  And my wife grew up Mormon though she left the church 25 years ago.  

One thing I will say, is that they used to get a lot of people through what was called "fellowshipping."  Essentially Mormon kids were expected to make some non-Mormon friends, invite them to church dances, firesides, etc. and show them how fun the church was and how nice everyone was.  That was a huge deal for them when I was in high school.  My son goes to the same school and it's definitely not that way now.  The Mormon kids are very insular and have little to no interest in making friends outside the church.  My wife has mentioned that there seems to have been a wholesale change in "policy."  Her nieces and nephews are aghast at the idea of having good friends that aren't Mormon, while I had at least two of my best friends who were Mormon when I went to high school 30 years ago.