Today, the "Economic Draft" expands the definition of the colonized to include those trapped by manufactured scarcity: the poor funneled into the military through the Poverty Draft, the working class captured by Job Lock through employer-sponsored healthcare, and the educated class held in Indentured Servitude by student debt.
Author: Jeff Kisling
I'm retired from a career in infant pulmonary research and continuing to be engaged as a Quaker in multiple activities in the Midwest
Economic draft and NewCO
he economic draft is the silent mechanism of Christian Colonial Capitalist Violence (CCV) that weaponizes the existential necessity of survival to compel labor for the military.
Targets of the Economic Draft
The modern world is defined by a systemic coercion that functions with the efficiency of a military draft but operates through the silent, invisible mechanisms of the market.
The Economic Draft
As I've been exploring the ideas of the NewCO (new conscientious objector) I've been led to see that the systems of oppression and injustice we are living in, the Christian, colonial, capitalist violence, can be more clearly viewed as an 'Economic Draft.' Framing it this way makes it more clear what the NewCO is consciously objecting to.
The NewCO: What, Why, and How?
The NewCO (New Conscientious Objector) framework provides a comprehensive strategic blueprint for the immediate cessation of systemic sin within the Iowa Yearly Meeting (Conservative) tradition. The NewCO is about a faithful response composed of three integrated pillars: LANDBACK, Mutual Aid, and Abolition.
We are called to take away the occasion of all wars and empires
Responsibility is the ability to respond to fused violence with a fused resistance. It is the understanding that we cannot peacefully coexist with a system that requires the destruction of the earth and the erasure of its people. Our task is to build a new world in the shell of the old. We are called to live 'in the virtu of that life and power that takes away the occasion of all wars-and all empires.
The Shadow on the Wall: From Gradualism to Immediacy
During those sleepless nights at Scattergood, I watched my shadow projected onto the wall by the light outside my window. I found myself asking: Who is this person? And what is he being led to do with the weight of this knowledge and concern?
Harmony Within the Meeting
It is paradoxical that I have deep, life-long ties to my Quaker meeting and community. There are so many things about the meeting's past and current work that I admire and support completely. So, I find it ironic that I am criticizing such a faithful community. But this is a fundamental part of a Quaker community, to continue to be open to what the Spirit leads us to do.
The Quaker Conundrum
This is an interactive web page about the concept of the NewCO (new conscientious objector)
Why Indigenous Leadership is Essential
One of the main lessons I've learned is the necessity of having Indigenous-leadership for this work.