I think you missed an opportunity by only quoting the first verse of Cohen’s Everybody Knows, because the second and third verses actually make a good chunk of the point you’re trying to make, showing the ironic intent of the first verse as platitudes people use to be at peace with unpleasant things they can’t personally change. The second verse presents this thesis:
Everybody knows that the boat is leaking
Everybody knows that the captain lied
Everybody got this broken feeling
Like their father or their dog just died
i.e., the need to avoid an unpleasant truth, as “Everybody talking to their pockets / Everybody wants a box of chocolates / And a long-stem rose… Everybody knows.”
Then, the third verse shows the more argumentative and manipulative motte-and-bailey use of the phrase, as he accuses a lover of infidelity, despite the fact that “everybody knows that you love me, baby, everybody knows that you really do; and everybody knows that you’ve been faithful… ah, give or take a night or two”.
i.e. the way people retreat to “but of course there are obvious exceptions… and everybody knows about those, too”.
(The rest of the song, though, is kinda weird and I expect that it’s stuff that’s too culturally specific to the place and time where the song was written. Something something drugs, racism, AIDS, maybe nuclear apocalypse?)
Yeah, I didn’t mean all in one spot, I meant doing little pieces as you introduced the related arguments, and a bit at the closing, as an overall thematic/framing device.
I think you missed an opportunity by only quoting the first verse of Cohen’s Everybody Knows, because the second and third verses actually make a good chunk of the point you’re trying to make, showing the ironic intent of the first verse as platitudes people use to be at peace with unpleasant things they can’t personally change. The second verse presents this thesis:
i.e., the need to avoid an unpleasant truth, as “Everybody talking to their pockets / Everybody wants a box of chocolates / And a long-stem rose… Everybody knows.”
Then, the third verse shows the more argumentative and manipulative motte-and-bailey use of the phrase, as he accuses a lover of infidelity, despite the fact that “everybody knows that you love me, baby, everybody knows that you really do; and everybody knows that you’ve been faithful… ah, give or take a night or two”.
i.e. the way people retreat to “but of course there are obvious exceptions… and everybody knows about those, too”.
(The rest of the song, though, is kinda weird and I expect that it’s stuff that’s too culturally specific to the place and time where the song was written. Something something drugs, racism, AIDS, maybe nuclear apocalypse?)
It’s all pretty great. Agreed that the additional versus are on point, but I didn’t want to go on too long.
Yeah, I didn’t mean all in one spot, I meant doing little pieces as you introduced the related arguments, and a bit at the closing, as an overall thematic/framing device.