No Clean Hands

Discerning a Personal Ethics of Economics

When my cohost Diana Yañez shared her vision about an entire podcast season focusing on Friends’ relationships with money, I assumed she would plunge me into a world of spreadsheets, stock portfolios, and ethical questions about earning and managing money. To my surprise, this series is really about something near and dear to my heart—discernment.

At the same time I began working on the Quakers and Money series, I ran into a dilemma on a different podcast I produce. Days before we began recording a new season, one of the cohosts messaged me that she did not feel comfortable using the recording platform I use since it is an Israeli-based company; she is committed to Palestinian rights, which includes standing in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

I panicked. I hadn’t known the company was Israeli-owned, and I did not know if it was complicit in supporting the Israeli military’s actions against Palestinians. As someone who supports Palestinian rights and works with various social justice-minded organizations, I faced a crisis. How could I find and learn a comparable alternative in less than a week, and who would pay for the new subscription?

Fortunately, as a Quaker, I have witnessed meetings for worship with attention to business where, after a Friend shares something challenging for the group, the clerk holds the tension in silent waiting. While this sometimes can be an inappropriate action designed to silence a dissenting opinion, usually it creates a space for Friends to pause and reflect before reacting.

I began my research by digging into the company’s website, and I pored over news articles about the founders. I sent multiple messages to the company, and I searched BDS campaign lists. I found nothing questionable about the company’s actions, but to assist with my inquiry, I reached out to Dov Baum, director of American Friends Service Committee’s Action Center for Corporate Accountability. Dov brings a wealth of grassroots experience from her work with Israeli anti-occupation organizations, regularly teaching on the intersections of corporate accountability, the BDS movement, and the economics of the Israeli military industry.

Dov told me, “The fact that it’s an Israeli company is an invitation to research it. Because of the current situation, many mainstream Israeli companies are basically mobilized to support the military.” Dov explained though that the boycott, which began in 2005, is not an action against individual Israelis but against institutions. The key to the movement is about maintaining a targeted, strategic campaign.

Dov helped me see the important difference between individually driven actions and collective strategic campaigns. Dov raised critical questions and a sober truth: “What are we trying to achieve? Are we trying to have clean hands? Living in late capitalism, living inside a system that oppresses people, having clean hands is very difficult. Actually, my favorite quote is, ‘there are no clean hands in late capitalism, only more or less strategic interventions.’”

Dov pointed out there are two tiers of action. “One is personal moral choice. We do not judge it. Everybody has a right to say, ‘I’m not comfortable eating it, buying it, putting it inside my house.’ That is your choice. The next level is how to create corporate accountability. And to do that, you need an organized campaign.”

I hear in Dov’s words a recurring theme that has come up throughout the Quakers and Money season: We have the opportunity and the urgent need to address the illusion of separation. As with nature, individuals are part of a larger body of connected parts; similarly, in the world of finance, we are connected to each other. If we want to bring about change, we can engage the larger collective to put significant pressure on oppressive systems and companies.

While I was initially anxious about digging into the world of finance, I am beginning to understand that the values I already practice—asking deep questions and joining with others in collective action—are the exact tools I need. Unpacking my personal finances doesn’t require me to act alone or be perfect. It simply requires me to stay curious and move as part of a larger community.

Coming up next month: Many meetings have been deep in conversations around reparations for years, but these conversations don’t always lead to actions. In the September episode, we dive into reparations and living into abolition. Moving beyond common anxieties and the paralyzing fear of “not doing it right,” the conversation reframes reparative economies around living amends—structurally changing the conditions of our communities so that historical and ongoing racialized violence cannot be repeated.

In next month’s column, my cohost Diana Yañez will consider how to have money conversations that can really lead to action, whether it’s about reparations for past harms or fair compensation for those who provide needed services to a meeting community.

Resources and Recommendations

Revisit an article from our October 2018 issue, “Money as a Mutual Blessing” by Lola Georg (available at Friendsjournal.org/issue-archive), which invites Friends to consider financial relationships as opportunities for mutual blessing. Drawing on George Fox’s call to “answer that of God in everyone,” she asks how money conversations might shift if we moved from anxiety and greed toward community, abundance, covenant, and generosity.

Also, discover the hidden history of Monopoly. Before Monopoly became a game about buying property, bankrupting friends, and crushing opponents, it began as “The Landlord’s Game,” created by Lizzie Magie in the early 1900s. Magie designed the game to teach players about land, wealth, rent, and monopoly power. Her original version included two sets of rules: one that rewarded shared prosperity and another that exposed the destructive logic of monopoly.

Do you have a question about Quaker values and money? Or a resource to recommend from your own financial journey? Let us know and you might get featured on the show! Leave a voicemail by calling 317-QUAKERS (317-782-5377) or send an email to [email protected].

Quakers Today is a production of Friends Publishing Corporation. Listen at QuakersToday.org or your favorite podcast app, and watch extended video interviews on our YouTube channel at Youtube.com/friendsjournal.

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