Every Body Knows
A Rewrite of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows"
Every body knows the guns were loaded Every body knows the crosshairs locked Every body knows the war ain’t over Every body knows that peace is blocked Every body knows the fight was fixed But they still had to try save their kids That's how it goes Every body knows Every body knows their knees have bullets Every body knows the Iron Dome. Every body’s got that lonely feeling Like their fathers when you took their homes. Every body asking for forgiveness Every body knows they’ll be in Heaven Where a meadow grows Every body knows Every body knows you shot the babies Every body knows you make sure to Every body knows it ain’t about faith But media won’t tell the truth Every body knows you’ve been discreet For there were politicians you just had to meet To buy their clothes And every body knows Every body knows Every body knows That's how it goes Every body knows Every body knows Every body knows That's how it goes Every body knows Every body knows it’s now or never Every body knows the end is due Every body knows you’ll fire forever And the line of Netanyahu Every body knows you’ve all gone rotten Sleepy Joe still funds the rockets Though his people oppose And every body knows Every body knows there’s justice coming Every body knows it’s moving fast Every body knows the guilty men and women Will be put behind the bars at last Every body knows that when it’s time You’ll be weighed against the bombs you dropped That will disclose What every body knows And every body knows you’ve been trouble Every body knows you’re losing grip From the bloody corpses in the West Bank To the beaches of the Gaza Strip Every body knows it’s coming apart Take one last look at the children’s hearts Before your blows That every body knows Every body knows Every body knows That's how it goes Every body knows Every body knows Every body knows That's how it goes Every body knows
Every Body Knows - A Rewrite of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows”, by Tom Shaw
This piece was my submission to for
and Christine Bovill’s contest for a rewrite of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” to address the ongoing atrocities occurring in Palestine. Christine’s final version combined lyrics from my own piece with a few other submissions. I did link the video below, however it seems that it has currently been privated. I will keep it embedded in case it becomes public again.It’s curious that many of the figures involved in my process of developing critical thought and forming my own views of the world, including the likes of Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson and others rising to prominence through their critique on “woke” culture, have chosen to side with the Netanyahu regime in some way. For so many who pride themselves on their pursuit of truth, it seems hard to reconcile this with their support for a regime that is killing swathes of innocent civilians in Palestine. It’s why I can strongly appreciate figures like
, Catherine Austin-Fitts, Neil Oliver, Jerm Warfare, Patrick Henningsen, Nick Hudson and Candace Owens (amongst many others!) who have all been transcending any one political ideology of late and demonstrating that there can be a common thread between criticising medical tyranny, the tyranny of so-called “progressive” policies, and the warmongering of a global technocratic cabal.
To me, it is a great demonstration that finding a path out of the anti-human craziness prevalent in the past few years will require perspectives independent of conventional political ideology. I definitely find myself unable to use any well-known labels to describe my own politics. When I can find myself agreeing with many of the anti-war and anti-corporatist sentiments of the “left”, the desire for a small state and for life, liberty and property that libertarians and classical liberals share, as well as the appreciation of hierarchies, cultural customs and value of private property that is more characteristic of the “right”, those labels seem nothing short of inadequate to me.
Ultimately, I believe our lives are a beautiful thing, and that our mission as humanity is to facilitate the flourishing of our lives and our communities. That suffices for me - it doesn’t require elaborate, meaningless political constructs to justify my ideas, and I couldn’t be less interested in arguments over those things just for the sake of it. I’m here to find out how to work together with anyone in the pursuit of highlighting where false belief systems about ourselves - and our societies - are keeping us from realising the true beauty that we are capable of. More and more, it seems as others are settling on a similar path too. Perhaps we will see the emergence of a post-political world, one where we simply connect with the human being within all of us. Wouldn’t that be incredible?
If you’d like to share this piece with your circles, feel free to use the image version of the poem below to do so:
Thank you for the support that you give. I wouldn’t be able to continue creating works like this and bringing them to you without it.
With gratitude,
Tom
