POP PHILOSOPHY: Casey ra se ra!

Casey Anthony may be our generation's O.J. Simpson, but that doesn't mean we should give a shit.

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POP PHILOSOPHY: Casey ra se ra!

POSTED: Thursday, July 7, 2011, 11:00 AM

Filed Under: TV

Wonder if I can start my own reality show ... ? (AP)

I was 13 in 1995, living in New York, watching the Knicks in the playoffs. The game was interrupted to show an aerial view of a white Ford Bronco driving down a highway. Borrring!! Little did I know that during the next year or two, the most popular thing for adults to put on TV was going to be a trial. I was soon to learn the real meaning of boring. Those particular proceedings meant nothing to me, because I didn't know (or care) about O.J. Simpson.

Now I turn on the TV and I see Casey Anthony. Another individual who means nothing to me, and I have to wonder why is she on TV? Quite frankly, for a few days leading up to Fourth of July, Anthony was the news.

And yet she wasn't. She was ON the news but everybody knows that she wasn't news. "Massive Dust Storm Envelops Phoenix" is news. "President Obama Signs a Such and Such" is news. Casey Anthony is reality TV. It's rubbernecking on some trial with one or two unusual lies — enough to really only get a handful of people curious about it. But all it would take is six or seven people in Center City standing and pointing at Love Park to make you go, "Hey, what's going on over there, I should check it out." And then you get there and say, "Oh, that? Who gives a ****?" but it's too late because nothing draws a crowd like a crowd.

Now that Twitter and Facebook have trending topics telling you what you should be concerned with, we are almost defenseless against enormous tides of artificial mass interest. And now that Anthony is not guilty, you can look for her next year on Celebrity Apprentice.

Try something daring the next time you see a name on trending topics that you don't recognize. Try doing everything you can to avoid learning about them. See if you can tolerate separation from the perpetual gossip siphon. Ironically, by enforcing a personal policy of topical ignorance, you may just find yourself waking up to real life.

(ryan.carey@citypaper.net)

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