Episode 296 Sneak Peek
Krystal Kyle & Friends
What would happen if … the American military was shut down from inside?

The foundations of American capitalism depend upon the certainty that members of the armed forces will always act as an indivisible bloc, one whose job is to uphold American imperialism, extraction, and exploitation abroad and to train forces of domestic repression (i.e. the police) to exploit and terrorize civilians at home. That certainty is core to the impunity with which our government acts when it uses state violence to ensure its control of capital and domination of the working class. So it feels like dreaming of another world when we even think about a reality in which the military crumbles from within. But we’re not indulging in fantasy when we seriously engage the question of what it would mean for individual members of the armed forces to confront and condemn the American military’s project of social destruction, and how solidarity with the working class, with the American public (to which these people belong), and with the global community might play a part. It’s worth thinking about when we actually notice that kind of consciousness cropping up today, even when mass consciousness of this possibility within the ranks of the armed forces seems a world away.

We have the opportunity to hear firsthand about the modern American soldiers turning on the institution to which they belong. Mike Prysner is our guest this week, and you may know him as the executive director of the Center on Consciousness and War. Mike’s direct experiences as a member of the U.S. Army in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 inform his leadership in an organization that advocates and platforms conscientious objectors (COs) in the belly of the beast. The Center’s mission is to oppose the laws and institutions that automatically funnel people into the U.S. military-industrial complex, protecting the freedoms of those who refuse to belong to it even when forced to do so. This advocacy is what it will take to make conscientious objection seem a more viable option to those currently in the service, and so we think there’s an imperative to hear from Mike about the roots of his fight to support and bring widespread attention to the soldiers who are currently getting radicalized against the American war machine from inside.