Systems of Survival: A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics

This is a most insightful book, in which the author convincingly expounds her thesis that the world uses two systems of ethics as systems for the survival of mankind: the commercial system, and the guardian system. The commercial class lives by production and exchange, primarily by means of honest, binding contracts and voluntary agreements, and where initiative, inventiveness and efficiency are prized, along with industriousness, thrift and investment. The guardian class is prevalent in governments, benevolent trusts, charity organizations, universities and schools, military and police. They shun trading and exchange, and live by taking, in the form of taxes and donations, and sometimes expropriation. They are dispensers of the good things, in the form of grants and largesse. Guardians issue commands and expect them obeyed, with courage if necessary, which they in turn are subject to themselves, for a hierarchical command structure is honored. And they use force and deception where necessary to accomplish objectives. The greatest sin, and the cause of all corruption, according to Ms. Jacobs, is when the two systems are merged in one organization. I have read several books on ethics, but this is the first that points out that there are two systems in operation in society. And it explains so much that has been a puzzle for me. For example, we are taught to tell the truth, as in the commercial system of ethics, yet a government will lie in the interests of the state, and a general will try to deceive the enemy, and both expect to be applauded for that. This can be explained only by the distinct systems of morality that guide the guardian class and commercial classes. The two systems explain the characteristics of nations too. The empire building nation is dominated by a guardian morality, and it guardian class despises the commercial morality. A good example is England, in the past, with its class system and colonial empire that puts business men and women at the bottom. You do not have to read too many Jane Austen or Anthony Trollope novels to become aware of that. To some extent this dominant guardian syndrome lingers in monarchical England to the present day, but the country is being forced into prizing a more commercial morality by an European Union led by successful, commercial-syndrome-dominated republics France and Germany. In contrast, the growing nation with plenty of territory is dominated by the commercial morality, for example the United States through most of its history, with its strong corporations and industrious commercial class. The U.S., however, is now showing signs of trending more toward a stronger espousing of the guardian morality, as its interests force it to begin some empire building abroad. But even if the commercial ethic still dominates in the United States, the guardian ethic is present and strong, and Jane Jacobs' brilliant proposition explains the never ending conflict between the two. And we can now

I rate this as one of the ten best books I have read in the last decade. For years I could not understand how everyday people can commit moral transgressions. Some years back, I found myself on the receiving end of some seriously unethical behavior committed by people who were my friends and whom I had always held in high regard. How could these good people involve themselves in such unethical behavior? The dysjunction between their behavior and my assessment of their characters was the source of much grief. After reading Jacobs' book, I have come to understand just how tricky some of these problems can be, and just how easy it is for good people to fall into error at the junction between commericial life and guardian life. Her book doesn't solve any problems, but it certainly makes sense of much human perfidy.

Jane Jacobs is one of those amazing outsiders who can take a collection of clippings from the newspaper, historical texts, and conversations with friends, and identify patterns no one else has so clearly seen. Here she has pointed out an entire field for future study -- the social evolution of meme-complexes, patterns of self-reinforcing beliefs that have evolved over time in human populations. One can quibble about the undisciplined frame for the arguments, but it does make the book an exceptionally easy read (and no doubt was much easier to write than a more formal treatment would have been). I certainly recognized myself and my friends (and politcal opponents) in her syndromes, and have found the insight they provide invaluable in working with people who are "syndrome-inflexible" (cannot swing from one syndrome to the other as appropriate) -- especially on local development issues, where the clash of the syndromes is exceptionally obvious.

This is one of my favorite books. I have read and re-read it again and again. Jane Jacobs explains why governments do good things -- and bad things. And why the free market does good things -- and bad things. Her exposition of the conflict between the "commercial syndrome" and the "guardian syndrome" is profound and original. An exceptionally brilliant philosophical dialog in the tradition of the Greeks.

Jane Jacobs' division of morality into two "syndromes", "commercial" and "guardian" has given me an enormously helpful and practical frame of reference from which to view human behavior, including my own. I especially see how I can lock into the point of view of one moral syndrome -- either one -- and judge the other syndrome to be immoral, when in fact, as Jacobs points out, immorality arises from the "monstrous hybridization" of the two. Jane Jacobs is one of my top five intellectual heroes, for this book and her several others on city economics.