Mapping Concepts of the Political onto Ender's Game

Ender's Game, after reading the Concept of the Political, seems like a war-games scenario testing out a Sci-Fi version of Schmitt's philosophy of politics. Schmitt posits that politics is defined by the antithesis of friend and enemy, the way morals is defined by the antithesis of right and wrong. Schmitt writes that "It is by no means as though the political signifies nothing but devastating war," but from reading Ender's Game, one could be lead to believe that the political does indeed only signify devastation.

The buggers, of course, serve as the "other" or "enemy" that unites the human nations under one cause. Card has provided the nations of Earth with a perfect Schmittian enemy: they came and attacked unprovoked, we are unable to communicate with them- they necessitate the most extreme political action, which Schmitt identifies as war.

Ender, the perfect weapon, is totally personally removed from the war he is fighting. In section 3, Schmitt remarks on the biblical passage "love thy enemy," saying, "The enemy in the political sense need not be hated personally" (p29). Ender feels no hatred for the opponents he defeats in the personal sphere, such as Bonzo and Stilson. Still less does he hate the buggers, the entire race of which he destroys without knowing his own actions.

Orson Scott Card aligns many aspects of his book to Schmitt's philosophy. The Hegemony uses the scare of a bugger invasion to keep control over the world. Peter and Valentine refuse to allow the world to fracture into civil conflict, realizing this would complicate Peter's grab at power. Only Card's hero remains untouched by the concept of the political. Ender desires to live out the rest of his life in peace, helping to heal the crime he committed. Ender is unable to distinguish between personal and political spheres, realizing that people are harmed in both types of conflict. He ultimately chooses exile rather than complicit participation in a system of politics he sees as exploitative and monstrous.