The Age of Hyperbole

This is probably the greatest blog entry ever.

Or...at least I could claim that it's true.

Have you noticed that kind of phrase on TV and in advertisements? These days we are in the Age of Hyperbole: A figure of speech in which exaggeration is used for emphasis or effect.

I can't tell you how many times I've heard someone say during a football game, or basketball game (...insert sport here) something to the effect of "This freshmen, or rookie.. blah blah... is probably one of the greatest athletes of the 20th century." or "this play will go down as one of the most remarkable ones in history."

Or TV commercials. Gosh. If you can remove yourself from their carefully crafted spell, they're really quite ridiculous. The greatest sale ever, the opportunity of a lifetime, it vastly improves the quality of my life. (How a garlic chopper improves the basic quality of life for someone, I have no idea. Heck, if that's true hand them out to the poor. Ship them to 3rd world countries. Except, garlic chopper are made in 3rd world countries?...Umm...) On and on.

So what. This isn't a big deal, it's just stressing the point they're trying to make, right? No harm done.

Well - maybe. But when it gets to the point that everyone is trying to accentuate their position by exaggeration, won't we lose our grip on truthfulness? Take for example the phenomenon of "shock." on TV. You know what I mean. Some network promises that this next episode will be so shocking...you know the speil.

The thing is, that as more and more people try to draw you in with shock, you, the sap headed viewer become decreasingly sensitive to that shock. So they have to do something more shocking. Which you will later, probably become desensitized to. But then everyone tries to use it to draw you in.

When I think of this one, I think of the whole lesbian/gay thing on TV. At first, just having a gay character was a shock. Fast forward and we have gay kissing on some shows (gross) and, not just a token gay character, but shows built around homosexuality. This is not good for anyone, not good at all. (I hear that it is now illegal and discriminatory to make negative comments about homosexuals or homosexuality in Canada. So, cousins in the great white north, you're welcome to come after me - but as of recently you'll have to have a passport to get across the line. Deal with it, A.)

Beyond big picture moral stuff, think of the effect on communication. Consider the resume. It is now so endemic that people exaggerate on their experience, abilities and character, that certain aspects of resumes have become unhelpful. If you can make you're burger joint experience sound profoundly remarkable, what am I to think? What's really real. Who's really the person I want? A truthful and helpful resume would probably get the shaft. So hyperbole becomes a requirement if you want to have a chance.

So - in my mind, I think the age of hyperbole is a bit annoying, if not harmful. Why can't we just speak plainly and truthfully about things. Call things what they really are. When does true truth get a shot? That seems more helpful to me. But, you might say, it's human nature to exaggerate, and try to make things we're invested in - especially ourselves - seem better than they are.

Sure, I would say, but it sounds more like a problem with humanity in general than with this particular time in history. These days we're just more slick at bending things. We're all shaders of truth.

Straight shooters might just call it lying. Isn't that shocking?