I ended the first part of this column-piece last week by mentioning how government propaganda typically burnishes the image of The Boss Almighty, to make him or her larger than life. A recent item on the Palace website demonstrates this penchant for melodramatic mythologizing.

(Before I go any further, take note that I’m reproducing these messages verbatim, with all the hurried grammatical and mechanical errors you can expect especially from email and SMS, so let’s dispense with the sic’s. At the same time and on the other hand, if I were the propagandist, I’d probably make sure that the item was as close to letter-perfect as it could be before sending it off, shouldn’t I?)

“GABALDON, Nueva Ecija - More than 5,000 residents warmly welcomed President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as she visits Gabaldon Municipal Hall here today to further enhance the administration's social services program.

“Residents brought placards thanking the President for her social programs in the province of Nueva Ecija that uplifts the lives of the poor citizens.

“Some of the placards have inscriptions extolling President Arroyo as ‘dakilang ina’ (great mother) while others thank the Chief Executive for the implementation of the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps) that benefits most of the residents….

“Licab resident Filipina Manuel stood up and went on the stage and expressed her profound thanks to the President for the said program.

“Manuel said that she started receiving the cash grant from the 4Ps program since August 2008 stressing that the money she received was spent for the needs of her family, especially to the education and health of her children.

“Manuel tearfully told the President that meeting her onstage is a dream come true because she never imagined that she will be able to meet the country's leader despite her status in life.”

Now, I don’t doubt that melodrama sells, especially in this land of the telenovela, and I can even believe that the fortuitously named Filipina Manuel was moved to tears by presidential charity.

But the medium for this message – a news story, online, in eminently editable English – only emphasizes its contrivance.

To be fair, it’s still a long way from the “Malakas at Maganda” fantasy of Marcosian times, but the article reminds me that, within certain institutions like presidential palaces – where employees feel much less accountable to vague abstractions like “the people” or “the truth” than to The Boss – propagandists often find themselves writing not to persuade the masses out there but to please The Reader up there.

It’s the office culture, not the writer, that produces these confections.

The flip side of canonization is, of course, demonization, and in a 180-degree turn from the above, here’s an emailed message I got from another reader, ominously titled “The Truth Regarding the Bondage of Gloria Arroyo with the Devil”:

“As our people struggle amidst one of the worst calamity our country has experienced, we learn that Gloria Arroyo's net worth ballooned from P6.7 million to P143.5 million between 1992 to 2008 – and that she spend P2.7 billion in foreign travels since 2003 – including the Calamity Fund which our suffering people needs so badly today.

We have come to the conclusion that Gloria Macapagal Arroyo is possessed by a demon!

A person can be a graduate of a Catholic school, a believer in Jesus Christ, will go to church and have her picture taken as she received Holy Communion which is the most disgusting picture of her (to use the most sacred mystery of our faith for her evil purpose is beyond our understanding), but still be in bondage to Satan and demons.

To be more accurate, we state that she has been invaded by Satan! We believe that she cannot commit all her nefarious activities unless she is bond with Satan!

It is essential to look at what the Bible has to say about the devil.”

As most of you know, I’m no fan of the little lady, but this example illustrates another aspect of poor propaganda: too much can backfire and become too little.

The only people who will buy demonic possession here are the same ones who already believed it to be begin with.

But never mind the patently incredible or hyperbolic.

It’s even worse when I find myself in fundamental sympathy with certain views and positions, but see them articulated so poorly or so awkwardly that my toes curl.

Here’s an account by an activist group of a recent assault on demonstrators marching to the Palace:

“What happened at the Malacañang gates is an exaggerated use of force against the youth and students. At the moment we reached Gate 7 of Malacañang, elements of the PSG and PNP immediately welcomed us with blows and nightsticks. Some of them were not even in uniform.

Negotiations went underway only after they have arrested 20 of our fellow students and 17 of us have suffered mild to serious physical injuries.

They were like rabid dogs hitting many of our fellow students in the face, abdomen, some even pinning them to the ground like common criminals.

Those who have fallen were stepped on by the perpetrators like they were putting off cigarette butts.

Female students were harassed by un-uniformed elements which held and pulled their clothes off, almost getting them undressed.

“Our message is clear: we are enraged over Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s corrupt practices and tyrannical rule. Shame on this government who has the gall of lavishing millions for foreign trips and banquets while raking millions in corruption, one after another ever since she came into power.”

The potential power of the indignation in this case is sapped by the clumsiness of the prose, often a result of righteous anger bubbling over.

These young comrades might consider that, when handling explosive material or strong emotion, ironic understatement and restraint will often produce a more profound impact on the reader than thunderous bombast.

And sometimes I get messages that simply leave me dumbfounded, not knowing where or how to even begin understanding what I’m being told.

Take this from a tireless proselytizer for – well, something to do with conscience, since it’s mentioned half a dozen times.

Perhaps this propagandist needs to be reminded that repetition can be more tedious than persuasive:

“This particular pastoral care to our COMMISSION ON ELECTION through the Chairman on Comelec in the Office of the Municipality of Balayan in the name of MR. NOLASCO MABUTAS in this coming NATIONAL & LOCAL ELECTION year 2010 to the homily of REV. FR. FROILAN CARREON, JR., this 24th day of September through the intercessions of our Mother BLESSED VIRGIN MARY is important on October 7, 2009 to all of us Filipinos about our MORAL CONSCIENCE.

“Sincere gratitude that it was timely about the homily through the GOSPEL today September 24, 2009 that we should now to start to examine our own conscience. It is truly sad that we see into our lives from political point of view, social point of view, cultural point of view, economic point of view and even to our religious point of view etc., that what the homily says about erroneous, scrupulous an delicate conscience are truly what we should or be careful to determine through our examination of conscience of what level of conscience doe we have and do we follow. For what is happening around us and even around the world of the reason SINS are rampant is because we are not truly know of how to listen to our true conscience.”

Angels and demons, demons and angels, indeed!

Email me at penmanila@yahoo.com, and visit my blog at www.penmanila.net.