A Textual Analysis on a Text Message
A relevant resident by the Jal-o sent me the following text message through short message service (SMS) the other day. The message reads:
There are three components in the text message. First, the framer awed the reader with a fact, i.e., July 2012 being the most unique having 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Tuesdays which only takes places every 823 years in the cycle of the Gregorian Calendar. The framer anchored on this wonderful fact to convince the reader of his next premise.
Second, he associated such relative occurrence in the Gregorian calendar with the lunar calendar-based conceptualization. He shifted the reader's consciousness from the initial Western weltanschauung to oriental perspective. Money Bags.
Finally, the baculum. One is not only to accept it as truth but is to act on such truth for fear of something worst to happen. The generally accepted but subtly deterministic criterion of Chinese folk beliefs coupled by the threat of bankruptcy are sufficed to create panic in the heart and mind of an unsuspecting reader. Add to that is the relevancy of the sender who may be out of fatalistic attitude (that there is nothing to lose, but all to gain) just mechanically "group send" such message to 20 contacts.
Then the pyramid builds up....And the telecommunication companies will gain much from out of the mere 20 pesos.
"Look at the month of July, you have never seen this. This year July has 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Tuesdays. This apparently happens once in every 823 years.
"This is called money bags.
"So send this to any 20 friends and money will arrive in 5 days. Based on Chinese Mythology, the one who does not pass this on will have money troubles for the rest of the year. It won't cost you much for that 20 text." (sic)In logic, this is called a fallacious argument, or better still, an informal fallacy known as a mixture of an argument from the scripture, retrospective determinism and argumentum ad baculum. Let us deconstruct it for clarity's sake.
There are three components in the text message. First, the framer awed the reader with a fact, i.e., July 2012 being the most unique having 5 Sundays, 5 Mondays and 5 Tuesdays which only takes places every 823 years in the cycle of the Gregorian Calendar. The framer anchored on this wonderful fact to convince the reader of his next premise.
Second, he associated such relative occurrence in the Gregorian calendar with the lunar calendar-based conceptualization. He shifted the reader's consciousness from the initial Western weltanschauung to oriental perspective. Money Bags.
Finally, the baculum. One is not only to accept it as truth but is to act on such truth for fear of something worst to happen. The generally accepted but subtly deterministic criterion of Chinese folk beliefs coupled by the threat of bankruptcy are sufficed to create panic in the heart and mind of an unsuspecting reader. Add to that is the relevancy of the sender who may be out of fatalistic attitude (that there is nothing to lose, but all to gain) just mechanically "group send" such message to 20 contacts.
Then the pyramid builds up....And the telecommunication companies will gain much from out of the mere 20 pesos.
My Humble Opinion
For sure it will cause me much if I give in to such threat. It will cause me my 20 pesos, my time and effort of sending such nonsense. It will cause me my peace of mind. It will cause me the displeasure of my 20 friends, if such friends are critical enough to notice the fallacies. Ultimately, it will cause me of sending the wrong message and eventually of proclaiming a contradictory news about my faith in a loving and merciful God who desire only good for his people by sending in his only begotten Son that all maybe one.
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