Jackson committed a fairly common logical misstep when he wrote that line. It’s the same kind of pardonable error as saying “the health care system” or “the news media is…” or “corporations are greedy.” It’s the hazard of mistaking the plural for the singular, the deliberate for the unorganized. Health care is an “industry,” not a “system.” One says “the news media are…” not “the news media is….” And individual people are greedy, not collections of them. Even those groups of people that have incorporated?  Not greedy.  Greed is a quality of men, not of businesses.

Here — in the opening gambit to “Scream” where he commits this error — Jackson seems to be talking to a perceived tabloid system or paparazzi system. Even if no such system exists, no one can blame him: the brutality of fame and all that it imples drove him to prescription drugs, depression, anxiety, and a textbook Peter Pan Complex.  Keep listening:

Tired of you tellin’ the story your way
It’s causin’ confusion
You think it’s okay
You keep changin’ the rules
While I keep playin’ the game

So there is no system.  There is, however, a tabloid industry and paparazzi industry, which — while neither just or unjust — wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t big money to be had. It’s a bitter pill for us to take, but it’s a fact nevertheless: both are nourished by our People Magazine/TMZ habit, our noxious Google Image searches and the innumerable nude celebrity blogs. And I do mean “our.” Yours and mine. In an unwritten, unspoken, almost spontaneous order, Patrick and I try to do our small part, limiting our posts to clips, free downloads, new artists, new releases, the occasional bit straight off the wire. In short, we do our best to underscore the music and leave the artists the hell alone.  But we certainly aren’t part of the solution.  Will I twitter Perez Hilton to tell him I’ve calculated his proportionate culpability in the King of Pop’s death?  Of course not.  Will I ever write E! Entertainment’s sponsors and tell them how much I disapprove?  Never.

With such collusions don’t it make you wanna scream?
Your bash abusin’ victimize within the scheme
You try to cope with every lie they scrutinize
Oh brother please have mercy ’cause I just can’t take it

Jackson handled us with kid gloves on this track. Maybe he didn’t know any better. Or maybe he did.