Manananggal in the Internet age

We have well-meaning friends who forward us “informative” emails that are meant to warn us about impending danger, enrage us about some morally-bankrupt person or institution, present the chance to help a sick child, or fascinate us with some (not quite) factual anecdotes.

I love hearing from my friends, even through the ostensibly impersonal medium of email. Many of them send me jokes (with varying degrees of good humor), inspirational messages, and various other attachments that fall in the general category of being “cute”.

However, there are people, some of whom we do not know, who forward messages that are clearly designed to elicit an intense reaction from the recipients — whether it be panic, apprehension, pity, indignation, or even a call to action.

I know many people who wanted to boycott Tommy Hilfiger clothes when they read in an email that he made some offensively racist remarks. “If I knew that blacks and Asians were going to wear my clothes, I would have never designed them,” Hilfiger supposedly told Oprah Winfrey on her show. Even worse was the rage caused by a hate letter written to the Filipino people, allegedly penned by a man named Art Bell. Countless Filipinos felt their blood pressures hit the roof when this particular message appeared in their inbox. Literally millions wrote stinging replies, open challenges, and numerous death threats to the purported author. A local showbiz columnist even picked it up in her column, fanning the flames of the mob even more.

Of course, Art Bell (who is married to a Filipina, of all things) had absolutely nothing to do with the hate-letter, and it remains a mystery how and why the document was attributed to him. The same goes for Tommy Hilfiger, who never made any such statements in any show — Oprah or otherwise. In fact, Oprah herself was so dismayed by the prevalence of the rumor that she opened one of her shows by emphatically denouncing the myth: “Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on this show. Read my lips, Tommy Hilfiger has never appeared on this show. And for all of the people who claim they saw it or heard it, well it never happened. I’ve never even met Tommy Hilfiger,” the talk show host fumed.

These are manananggal types of stories that are aimed at severing the credibility of certain people and products. Why do these stories take on a life of their own and circulate endlessly? I’m sure there are a number of sociological reasons and theories out there, which delve into the human psyche and our ancestral tendency to keep oral tradition alive. From the stands, however, I would venture a far simpler explanation: it’s easier to hit the forward button than do some research. The individuals responsible for fabricating and writing these messages are counting on that fact, and sadly they are all too often right.

In the example of Messrs. Hilfiger and Bell, the potential damage to their reputation, integrity, and even their safety is clear. But what about seemingly innocuous messages about how several major brands of lipstick contain dangerous levels of lead? Or how the American Cancer Society will donate three cents to the care of some poor child for every email you forward, or that George Washington had wooden teeth? Are these really so bad?

In a word, yes. As Vladimir Lenin said, “A lie told often enough becomes truth,” so every person who helps to spread a lie — no matter how seemingly innocent or harmless — becomes an accessory to the fact. Eventually, this “I heard from so-and-so that this-and-that happened” becomes so rampant that people actually convince themselves about its veracity. And that is the second aspect of the malignancy of these stories: essentially, we are duped when we believe them. Regardless of how little it affects our lives — if indeed they have any effect at all — fictitious forwarded emails and urban legends become dignified when we accept them as true.

It pays to remember that these stories just don’t begin randomly. Ninety-nine percent of the time, someone invents them in order to achieve a purpose. In an interesting case of an urban legend spawning from an urban legend, some claim that the manananggal folklore began when the CIA used it as part of their low-intensity conflict strategy during the 1950s. The Americans allegedly planted horror stories of the manananggal to Filipino barrio dwellers, in order to encourage them to report all strangers and unusual activities to their kapitans. This was particularly useful; since the US was helping the Philippines fight the Hukbalahap insurgents during that time. Now whether this is true or not, the point remains that stories can be used effectively to influence people.

So think about the warning to avoid the fitting room of a certain mall for fear of getting eaten by the owner’s snake-child, or how you prefer one burger establishment over another one because you heard that one was made out of worms. That the headache, nausea and dizziness that you are experiencing is due to MSG consumption? It certainly wasn’t caused by MSG. Just ask the United States Food and Drug Administration, the United Nations’ Joint Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization, and the American Medical Association, who have repeatedly and categorically stated that the food additive has no side effects, and that the much-ballyhooed “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” is a myth. But that’s not what the marketing people of restaurants and “healthy” products would have you believe, now, is it?

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From Nomer Obnamia comes this e-mailed reply to my Tuesday column. “Nadya is a tragic figure. She’s a nut case and needs counseling, not a master’s degree in counseling. Given the opportunity, she will do it again… Nadya’s mother feels guilty, she is an enabler, she has to help her irresponsible daughter take care of the children. And now there are eight more babies to raise. And by golly, Nadya is not married at all! How can she afford to support a large family being a single mom and unemployed person? The answer is obvious. Nadya is collecting easy money from the United States government that makes it profitable for her to be a ‘breeder’ at the expense of taxpayers. This abuse is one of the reasons why taxation in the US is skyrocketing.”

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My e-mail: [email protected]