The "Hey Look at Me" Strain of Pop!

There is that extreme form of Pop Culture. I call it the "hey look at me" strain.  If you are not seen in Pop, you don't exist. The trick is to do anything to get attention. You may strut, and pose, and shake your ass, and stick your tongue out, and make a fool of yourself, it's OK. There is no shame. Or being shameless is totally fine, or just part of the game. And what outraged people last week, isn't outrageous enough this week to turn heads, so there is always an escalating extremeness that never quite gets satisfied. And as long as you garner attention, as long as those eyeballs are on you, and the cameras are pointed at you, and the tongues are wagging about you, and the keyboards are clicking describing you, you are happening, and well, that's all that matters.  It's a weird, soul-less kind of thing. And it's beyond good or bad, it's just about attention. And attention must be paid. And it's a bubble. It's insubstantial. But it is what it is.  It's a beast. A beast to behold. And it's amazing to watch what people will do, what kind of sacrifice they will perform on the altar of Pop. Really. And sometimes you have to watch. Like watching a car wreck. Can't take your eyes off. And well, we are all implicated in this somehow. And it's trivial, and stupid, and sort of oddly dehumanizing. But it's just another form of Pop that has been finely honed. It sucks the oxygen out of the air, and sometimes it just takes your breath away. And that's a sort of attention too. So, yes...