It is no wonder that this term (ref: the title) is not unfamiliar to most of us. The art of exaggeration is a well-founded principle that, I think, exists since time immemorial. Everyone is prone to exaggeration at some point or the other in one’s life.
Why exaggerate?
• Exaggeration is a useful tool in drawing attention and sympathy on oneself. It is a tactic often used by feigning illnesses of all kinds and voicing out grouses and any form of discontentment. Often in this case, it is a sign that the person is lacking the necessary attention he/she requires. If analyzed closely it is in fact a well-disguised cry for help from the person who does not feel loved, cherished and valued sufficiently. In other words, it is an urgent request for ego-boosters.
• But exaggeration may also be detonated by other factors. Quite often in an attempt to hide one’s own evil deeds in any conflict involving one or more persons, the individual attempts to exaggerate the acts and deeds of the other party. The power of exaggeration can turn the guilty person into a poor hapless victim whose deeds, however much evil, could never match up to those of his counterpart.
• Exaggeration can also be an automated response to a seriously disturbing event or episode in one’s life, if the individual fails to accept it with its consequences in the healthiest manner possible. This is where the individual begins to feel victimized all his life and in comparing with others, erroneously supposes that he has suffered more than anyone else. He then indulges in exaggeration, calling himself an undeserved victim, as memories of all his own wrong deeds fade with time and a lack of objectivity on his part.
The power of exaggeration
The strength of this power lies in the simple fact that whoever hears the exaggerated statement is bound to be marked by the relation/story-telling for a sufficiently extended period of time. Whenever exaggerations are not obvious to the listener, the latter may be misled into believing in their veracity.
The evils of exaggeration
An ‘exaggeration’ is a euphemism for a ‘lie’ because it is clearly not true. The tenth edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary defines an ‘exaggeration’ as “an enlargement or alteration beyond normal proportions.†Being a lie, it is therefore misleading and can often turn into a “crying wolf†story.