Well id you hear? There's a natural order
Those most deserving will end up with the most
That the cream cannot help but always rise up to the top
Well I say, "Shit floats"

If you thought things had changed
Friend, you'd better think again
Bluntly put, in the fewest of words
Cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world
Oh yeah

Now the working classes are obsolete
They are surplus to society's needs
So let 'em all kill each other
And get it made overseas
That's the word, don't you know
From the guys that's running the show
Let's be perfectly clear boys and girls
Oh cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world
Oh yeah

Oh yeah

Feed your children on crayfish and lobster tails
Find a school near the top of the league
In theory I respect your right to exist
I will kill you if you move in next to me
And it stinks, yeah it sucks, it's anthropologically unjust
But the takings are up by a third, so
Cunts are still running the world, yeah
Cunts are still running the world
Oh yeah

Cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world

The free market is perfectly natural
Do you think that I'm some kind of dummy?
It's the ideal way to order the world
"Fuck the morals, does it make any money?"
If you don't like it, then leave
Or use your right to protest on the street
Yeah use your right, but don't imagine that it's heard
Not while cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world, yeah
Cunts are still running the world, yeah
Cunts are still running the world, oh
Cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world
Cunts are still running the world


Lyrics submitted by hastalavictoria

Running the World Lyrics as written by Jarvis Branson Cocker

Lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc.

Lyrics powered by LyricFind

Running the World song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

12 Comments

sort form View by:
  • +1
    General Comment

    i don't think that anyone needs to tell you the meaning to this song.

    Kutentamenon January 14, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    very cool

    Jaydon September 14, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i LOVE how this was the first song to get added off Jarvis. =P

    I actually played this song with la famille the other night and they hated it totally because of the language, but I think it works! It's bitterly honest and I'm pleased that Jarvis still hates everyone just as much as he did in Different Class. =)

    Appers66on November 19, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    It was the first to get added because he put it on the internet before the album's release. I think it's pretty class.

    hastalavictoriaon December 05, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    I love this some, at the reading festival this year they had a sing along of it between bands and it was good =)

    necroGLon December 26, 2006   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    This is the best song to come along in a long time. Jarvis is great and all his music (that I've heard is great)

    Wallamanageon January 05, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    i'm not a hippy or anything, but i hate the way everything in life comes down to money and how some people will fuck the world over just cos they're greedy bastards. yet these people are running the world and there's not much we can do about it. thats pretty much the gist of the song, but you all new that anyway ;-)

    selfishisgorgeouson January 19, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    hate to pick holes but its "get it made overseas"

    not "get a maid overseas"

    selfishisgorgeouson January 19, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    What a great sing-a-long chorus - Everybody sing!

    bkat004on February 25, 2007   Link
  • 0
    General Comment

    great song. i especially like how it was played during the credits of Children of Men. very sly... :)

    maniacleon September 10, 2008   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
Fast Car
Tracy Chapman
"Fast car" is kind of a continuation of Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run." It has all the clawing your way to a better life, but in this case the protagonist never makes it with her love; in fact she is dragged back down by him. There is still an amazing amount of hope and will in the lyrics; and the lyrics themselve rank and easy five. If only music was stronger it would be one of those great radio songs that you hear once a week 20 years after it was released. The imagery is almost tear-jerking ("City lights lay out before us", "Speeds so fast felt like I was drunk"), and the idea of starting from nothing and just driving and working and denigrating yourself for a chance at being just above poverty, then losing in the end is just painful and inspiring at the same time.
Album art
Bron-Y-Aur Stomp
Led Zeppelin
This is about bronies. They communicate by stomping.
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Album art
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988. "'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it." "There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Album art
Plastic Bag
Ed Sheeran
“Plastic Bag” is a song about searching for an escape from personal problems and hoping to find it in the lively atmosphere of a Saturday night party. Ed Sheeran tells the story of his friend and the myriad of troubles he is going through. Unable to find any solutions, this friend seeks a last resort in a party and the vanity that comes with it. “I overthink and have trouble sleepin’ / All purpose gone and don’t have a reason / And there’s no doctor to stop this bleedin’ / So I left home and jumped in the deep end,” Ed Sheeran sings in verse one. He continues by adding that this person is feeling the weight of having disappointed his father and doesn’t have any friends to rely on in this difficult moment. In the second verse, Ed sings about the role of grief in his friend’s plight and his dwindling faith in prayer. “Saturday night is givin’ me a reason to rely on the strobe lights / The lifeline of a promise in a shot glass, and I’ll take that / If you’re givin’ out love from a plastic bag,” Ed sings on the chorus, as his friend turns to new vices in hopes of feeling better.