Firstly, the surname of Raul S. Gonzalez is of the variety with two “z’s,” ending with a second “z” rather than an “s.” About “againstness,” mmm…wordsmiths sometimes do find the conventional lexicon sorely inadequate to express what’s in their mind, so they sometimes get tempted to do the ultimate in wordsmithing—coin new words. “Againstness” does sound like a strange new syllogism, but it doesn’t look bad at all to me and it seems to work just fine in Gonzalez’s sentence construction. And we mustn’t forget that he was writing an informal essay, a newspaper column—not a college essay or a masteral dissertation. No one can flunk him for his urge to be lexically creative.
As to Gonzalez’s assessment of the once-upon-a-time actor/president, the gauntlet was actually thrown as early as September of 2001 when Gonzalez wrote about him in his column in The Daily Tribune. As far as I know, however, the Biblical simile—or was it a metaphor?—wasn’t disputed at all.
And finally, regarding Gonzalez’s feeling that his World War II suffering was “almost like carrying the cross up Calvary,” that was his honest feeling at the time, I suppose. Remember that we Filipinos are mostly a deeply religious people. And I think that even the supra religious shouldn’t dispute someone’s deepest feelings. In the Holy Book itself, in fact, many of the people who claimed they had received some divine instruction or message could only say that it came in the form of a dream, a sign, or some other form of unverifiable advisory--no third-party proof whatsoever. I can’t presume to speak for Gonzalez, but I have the feeling that he would just shrug off with a grin whatever religious hackles may come.
