Poems

Every Body Knows

A Rewrite of Leonard Cohen's "Everybody Knows"

Text within this block will maintain its original spacing when publishedEvery 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 Norman Finkelstein and Christine Bovill’s contest for a rewrite of Leonard Cohen’s “Everybody Knows” to address the ongoing atrocities occurring in Palestine. At the time of writing this piece I was unaware that Leonard Cohen was a supporter of the Zionist and other anti-human ideas - and for me, it makes it even more fitting that his words are “re-written” to address a counter to the narrative he supported. 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 Maajid Nawaz, 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.

I do suspect some of the promotion of pro-Palestinian sentiments by well-known figures happens to inflate tensions between the “left” and “right” (Bob Vylan is a great example of this) - or to capitalise on anti-genocide sentiments and covertly funnel more money to continue the conflict under the guise of “aid” (the Together for Palestine music concert is another great example).

As ever, the truth is more nuanced than the artificial binary some are led to believe in.

All this is to demostrate that finding a path out of the anti-human craziness prevalent in the past few years will require perspectives independent of political ideology. I don’t use any well-known labels to describe my own politics, and I barely even think in political terms any more when considering how I show up in the world. When I can find commonality with anti-war and anti-corporatist sentiments of the “left” as well as the desire for a small state and for life, liberty and property that libertarians and classical liberals share, along with the appreciation of hierarchies, cultural customs and value of private property that is more characteristic of the “right”, all these labels demonstrate themselves as inadequate and nothing more than a tool of division.

A particularly humorous example of just how meaningless the conventional political labels are can be seen on the Twitter of Max Blumenthal - an excellent critic of various warmongering practises by global technocrats. At one point, The Grayzone’s Wikipedia entry simultaneously described the publication as far-right and far-left due to the publication’s stances on Ukraine and Israel.

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. I do not need 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?

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