I got this from anther thread and I know it’s a stereotype but in my experience the Mormon’s I knew seemed weirdly happy. Is it just a stereotype? So is it a false front? Is it true?
Whichever the answer, why?
It’s been said for years that Utah has the nation’s highest per-capita usage of anti-depressant drugs.
cite.
A 10+ year old study?
Have the demographics in Utah changed much in 10 years?
I think you nailed it, right here. I think that’s what they do best, to be honest. Romney’s been at it for years, that’s why, no matter how hard he tries, he still comes across as a cardboard cut out.
Their whole strategy seems to be; don’t say too much, say what you know they will receive well, skip things they won’t, and then do whatever you want, once you’re in.
This might be drifting into another territory, but they, in general, seem very concerned about outward appearances, especially with respect to their religion. As more people learn about the weirder or more controversial specifics, they’re fairly quick to make changes.
“What’s that? You think polygamy is wrong? Oh, uh, we do too!”
“You say it’s socially backward to view blacks as second class? Uh, yeah, we do, too… we’ve just been meaning to change a few words around in the doctrine, but no big deal. (Josiah, tell the professors at BYU to ixnay the acismray.”)
“Yeah, about that ‘getting-a-planet-after-you-die-thing’, look, uh, that’s just how a few people have interpreted that… It’s actually not that specific in our official liturgy… What’s that? It was Brigham Young? You know about that?”
(“Hey, Josiah, they know about the underwear. Let’s tone it down.”)
Seems to me they have a bit of a history of putting up fronts for the sake of appearances.
My daughter knew lots of Mormons in high school and before, and we bought our house from one. My impression is that they were no more or less happy than anyone else, but, as they got older, they were under a lot of pressure to toe the line - do their mission, get married early, got to the best BYU they could get into. Anyone rebelling in the slightest (and some of them spoke to my daughter as a friend who would be sympathetic) were very stressed.
And one of the sons of the people we bought our house from was so very happy that the SWAT team came for him.
My maternal grandparents were mormon, and after they passed away, it came out through memoirs that they were incredibly depressed pretty much their entire married lives. I don’t know if other people they associated with outside the house were aware of it, but my mom and her siblings weren’t, so there’s obviously some level of frontage going on.
I can’t imagine being happy if I were taxed by not only the IRS but also the Mormon Church.
As european we don’t see many mormons here… the few I have met, were on the road to be missionaries. Even if they were young and seemed confident to have made the right choice, I always pity people who do not want to take responsability for their own lives…
Any kind of totalitary system makes people depressed … if it’s religion or political doesn’t change much…
My brother went to Weaver State University in Ogden, and I would tease him that he would find a nice Mormon girl, fall in love and get married in Utah. He told me the Mormon girls he met there were nice and attractive but reminded him of smiling Stepford Wives, so not exactly his type.
Might be a bit happier skimming 10% off everyone, less happy if paying it over.
Kind of like the USP of the Amish a little more - the rural gig might work better.
That’s what they do best? You’re using a pretty wide brush there. Mormons, just as folks of any other religion and none, are happy, sad, elated, depressed, and a thousand other shades in the middle. In short they’re humans, just like us. Weird, huh?
My best friend when I was a kid was Mormon.
He didn’t seem particularly happier than anybody else at the time (just really nice to be honest), but in the ensuing years it became obvious that he had some depression and/or anxiety issues that he had to work out. I only became aware of it several months after it happened, but he had apparently spent some time in a mental facility after doing some, eh, unfortunate things to himself after his girlfriend broke up with him. That was years ago, and it’s all sorted out now as far as I know.
I barely even keep up with him currently, though. We’ll talk once or twice every six months or so, but that’s where our friendship has wound up at this point; still, he told me a while ago that he was no longer Mormon because he just didn’t really identify with it anymore.
I went to his church with him once as a kid. I barely even remember what happened at the service now, but I can recall not having any fucking clue what anybody there was actually talking about.
And that’s my personal experience with Mormonism.
There’s more than one?
The mind-boggling thing is there are Mormon men who meet outsider women and say “They are not [Stepford]-ish enough.”
Is it coincidental, then, the most Mormon-dominated state has double the national average anti-depressant use?
Kind of depends if it’s the Mormons who are using them, or whether people are depressed by coming into contact with them.